The Loud Sim Date
by Exotos135
Summary: When Lincoln and his sisters decide to play a VR sim date game based on themselves, their already chaotic life might become too much to handle. And perhaps, there's more to it than it seems...
1. Welcome to The Loud Sim Date

At the school of Royal Woods, Lincoln was leisurely walking across the hallways when he saw a peculiar sight: Cristina, his fellow classmate, holding a VR machine with a game that had he and his sisters in the cover.

So, intrigued by this sight, he approached the girl and gently asked, "Hi Cristina, what do you have there?"

She hastily hid the game and machine on her back and began sweating. "Are you okay?" Lincoln asked, tilting his head.

The girl nodded with a nervous smile and soon pointed at something, causing Lincoln to look at the object in question...which was nothing but a wall. Once e turned back, Cristina was nowhere to be seen and the machine and game were on the ground in perfect condition.

So Lincoln took a closer look and soon found a note on the VR machine. All it read was "For: The Loud House" with a couple hearts next to it. So Lincoln figured it meant his house, after all what house could be more "Loud" than his own, and took the game and the machine back to his house.

 _Back at the Loud House..._

Linc, at the living room, finished setting up the VR machine and put the game into the console. "Let's see what's up with this thing," he said as he turned the console to "ON."

After waiting for a couple seconds, Linc watched as the machine started to load the title screen. He focused so much on watching the screen, in fact, he failed to see Luan and Luna were sitting at his sides.

"Hey Linc, what do you got there?" Luan inquired, causing Lincoln to jump in sheer terror.

Once the boy hit the ground, the title screen of the game appeared: showing a small, androgynous figure shrouded in shadows with an "?" on their body, with the Loud sisters-and Lincoln-forming a heart around them as a spotlight illuminated them. Above them came the title, "The Loud Sim Date," also with hearts on it.

Luna and Luan were immediately surprised by what they saw. "Whoa, no way, is that us?" Luna asked before giving Lincoln a puzzled look. "What are we doing in your game, bro?"

"Clearly, he wanted to share the spotlight for once," Luan chuckled, "But seriously, though, what are we doing in your game?"

"I don't know, the game's not even mine," Lincoln answered as he got up. "I saw Cristina giving it a look and saw it was meant to the loud house, so I figured it was a gift for us."

"Hmm...well, we should figure out what this game's about," and so, Luna approached the VR helmet and checked it. "I'm gonna take a guess and say we need to use this thing to make it work?"

"I go after you," Luan stated.

Luna put on the helmet and was immediately. "Wow, no way, mate! The screen's right in my face! I wonder if it'll follow me if I spin around the room?" so Luna spun around in place, frowned, spun again, and said as she wobbled around the place. "Oh, the title doesn't follow me, and there's nothing but darkness outside of it."

Luna hit Luan and the comedian put the rockstar on the couch. "You should probably take a little rest," she said as she took off the VR helmet. "Now's my turn!"

So Luan put on the helmet, went back to the TV and pressed the title, causing it to change into a character select screen. "Whoa, really cool," as Luan made her character, Lincoln took a look at the screen and scratched his chin. "Hey Linc, did the TV change?"

"Uh, yeah, it did," Linc responded.

"Ha, sorry control remote, but you've been replaced!" Luan proclaimed as she finished her character. Once she finished, she confirmed the character and put her hands on her hips as the screen loaded. "There, I'm done with my character! Teenager, female, black and dressed like a goth!"

Luna and Lincoln immediately gave the comedian a look of bewilderment. "I honestly thought you were going to make a comedian-style character, like yourself," Luna blurted.

"Just 'cause my jokes are predictable doesn't mean I myself am," and then the game finished loading and a message appeared. "Let's see. Welcome to The Loud Sim Date, a game where you can date and-"

Luan suddenly fell silent as she mentally read the rest of the message. Not helping matters was that Luna went closer and read it to herself as well, leaving her equally speechless. "Is this game-" Luna asked.

"Yes," Luan blurted as she took off the VR helmet. "Did I just-"

"Yes," Luna answered.

And then, two words escaped their mouths in unison:

"Oh no."

"Why? What's the problem?" Lincoln took a quick look at the message and... "Oh no!"

And a second later, the trio panicked.

"Quick, somebody turn off the game!" Lincoln exclaimed, flailing his arms and running around in circles.

"Okay, but first I need my guitar," Luna said.

"And I need to practice my jokes," Luan added.

This made Lincoln stop and give his sisters an "are you serious?" look. "True, I probably shouldn't waste a perfectly good guitar on that game."

"And the system probably doesn't have a sense of humor, either."

So Lincoln walked to the machine and turned it off. However, when he tried to take the game out, the game remained practically glued to the system. "Well, I guess I can't try to take it out tomorrow."

Lincoln put a sheet over the system before turning to Luan and Luna. "Okay, we need to make sure nobody else finds out about this thing. Who knows what the rest of my sisters will do if they find out about I brought this thing," he told them. "Can I count on you to keep it a secret?"

Luna and Luan exchanged stares, then shrugged with smiles on their faces. Lincoln, feeling he had done enough, went back upstairs to his room as Luna and Luan watched him.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors to determine who gets to play it tomorrow?" Luan suggested.

Luna cracked her knuckles as she answered, "Let's give it a shot, mate."

1, 2, 3, GO!

Luna picked rock, while Luan picked paper.

"Ha! I knew you'd just rock n' roll with it," Luan chuckled.

So, not feeling like playing the game now, the girls went back to their rooms as well, leaving behind the covered game system.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"Who told you my name?" Virtual Lynn inquired._

 _Shocked at the response, Lincoln covered his mouth and watched as Virtual Lynn gave him a look, shrugged and took her football back._

 _"So, say, if you're feeling better later, would you like to hang out or something?" she asked to Linc's character. "I've got a small bit of my schedule time free today, and I still haven't figured out how I'm going to waste it."_


	2. First Impressions

The next day, Lincoln, while his sisters were using the bathroom, went downstairs to check up on the game system. Luckily, once he took out the sheet, he saw it was in the same state he left it.

 _"Huh, Luan and Luna didn't tell anybody else about the game yet. Great,"_ he thought. And once look at the VR helmet later, he got an idea. _"I wonder..."_

He put on the helmet, turned the system to "ON," started the game and quickly made his character. Unlike Luan's, his was around his age, male, and was dressed like a version of himself, but with more green clothes and less lameness.

"Okay, let's start then."

One confirmation and message later, Lincoln saw he was at the school, with four available routes he could take. _"To the baseball field, the cafeteria, the auditorium, or the mud puddle?"_ he thought long and hard about this, and by that I mean about 2 seconds. _"I'm gonna go to the field."_

So Lincoln's character went to the baseball field...and he was immediately struck by a football. "It's just like in real life!" Linc exclaimed, genuinely impressed.

Soon enough, Linc's character got up as the person who threw the football approached him. This person was none other than a virtual version of Lynn.

"Hey, sorry pal, I didn't see you there," the virtual Lynn said.

"Lynn?!" Lincoln exclaimed, unaware he made his character say just that.

"Who told you my name?" Virtual Lynn inquired.

Shocked at the response, Lincoln covered his mouth and watched as Virtual Lynn gave him a look, shrugged and took her football back.

"So, say, if you're feeling better later, would you like to hang out or something?" she asked to Linc's character. "I've got a small bit of my schedule time free today, and I still haven't figured out how I'm going to waste it."

And then came two choices:

 _"Hang out with Lynn."_

Or

 _"Tell her to remain at the football field."_

Linc scratched his chin as he eyed both options, carefully planning and analyzing the best option to take...and promptly picked the first one. "Cool, see ya later, boy!" Virtual Lynn remarked as she ran back to where she went.

And once she was out of sight, a small bar with Lynn's face in it appeared, and filled with red until it showed "5%" underneath it. "I believe that was a good start," Linc said, placing his hands on his hips.

And so, thinking he was done for the moment, Lincoln reached for the VR helmet and was startled when a vampire-themed piano tune played, which was followed by the arrival of another familiar face: a virtual version of Lucy.

"Lucy?" Lincoln said...in his mind, since he didn't want to figure out what would happen if he said her name.

"I saw you two. Lynn seems happy...but will you keep her happy?" Virtual Lucy inquired, arms folded on her back. "I mean, just because you can keep her happy doesn't mean you will. Perhaps, you'll probably try to test how much she can take before breaking down?"

"What are you talking about? I would never try to make Lynn sad!" Linc, and by extension his character, vehemently responded. "Specially since she's perfectly capable of breaking all my bones if I get her mad."

The wind blew in Lincoln and Lucy's face, with the girl's hair and skirts blowing in unison as Lincoln could only look around in wonder.

"Sticks and stones may break your bones, but first they must be thrown," Virtual Lucy blurted, with her hair flipping up to reveal a single eye giving Linc's character an angry glare. "Words and actions may break your hearts, but first they must be done."

Virtual Lucy revealed both her eyes and hissed, "I'll be watching you," right before the wind stopped blowing and Lucy's hair turned back to normal. "Remember that."

And then she vanished.

"Okay, I think that's enough game for now," Linc remarked as he saved his file. "I should better make sure to do what Virtucy told me to do."

So Lincoln reached his character's room, saved once more just in case, and turned the machine to "OFF" before taking off the helmet. Unfortunately, the first thing he saw once he took it off was Lynn and Lucy, the former looking particularly confused. And understandably, he nearly got a heart attack.

"How long have you been there?!" Linc questioned.

"I've always been here," Lucy answered.

"And I came here to know why you called me," Lynn answered before approaching the VR system. "Is that a new game system you got there, Linc?"

"Uh, no, it's uh...just a gift...a gift Cristina was supposed to give us, I think," Lynn put on the helmet and turned the machine to "ON" as Lincoln continued explaining. "There was a note attached to it addressing us, so I figured she was going to give it to us. I still don't know why, though."

Lynn shrugged, put on the helmet and turned the system back to "ON," revealing it was still at the room of Linc's character. "Whoa, nice room! It's so weird to see a non-shared bedroom outside of Lincoln's," Lynn remarked as she started to look around. "So, how do I play the game, Linc?"

As Lincoln explained, Lynn went towards the button labeled "Continue to date" and pressed it, causing it to load... "Uh, you move around, pick options with your hands and-"

Then, when the button's image changed to that of Lynn, the girl freaked out. "You were about to date me?!" the sports girl exclaimed, right before getting an idea. "Okay Linc, what's going on?"

"Well, I wanted to figure out what the game entailed, so I tried to move, I met a virtual version of you and told her we would hang out later," and then, remembering Lucy was also there, Linc turned to her and added, "And I also saw a virtual version of Lucy, who warned me to not make you sad or...something bad would happen."

The emo's response was a simple "Neat."

"And you picked _me_ out of all the girls you could date?" Lynn pinched the bridge of her nose. "Listen, if you're going to date somebody in a VR game, do someone who's easier, like maybe Leni, or Lana, or Li-no wait, not Lily, she's not old enough to go out on dates."

"Yeah, 'cause that's the problem," Lucy said, arms folded.

Linc scratched his head and turned to the readers before asking, "Are you mad because I picked you over the other girls, or are you mad because I'm apparently dating you in the first place?"

Lynn shrugged. "Well, it's weird that you were going out on a date with me, but it's also weird that you would take someone as aggressive as me for your first date instead of somebody else, so there you go."

She approached Linc and put her hand on his shoulder. "Listen, we can figure out later what other girls you can pick, so you can choose one you can actually date without getting a couple broken bones in the process. Meanwhile, I'll date Lucy, or maybe myself, because the only person capable of dealing with me is another me, can you deal with that?"

"Uh..." Linc scratched the back of his head.

And then Lynn repeatedly punched Linc's shoulder. "I said, can you deal with that?"

"Yes, I can deal with that!" the guy exclaimed, desperately trying to block his sister's attacks.

"Great!" Lynn took off the helmet and turned the game off as she proclaimed, "Now if you excuse me, I'll go tell everybody about this game!"

"No way! You're going to have to get past me first!" Linc stated.

Lynn simply smirked, placed her hands around her hips, and effortlessly jumped over her brother while saying "Catch me if you can!" as she ran towards the kitchen. Lincoln soon gave chase and left Lucy behind, who gave a look at the game before noticing somebody outside the window: Cristina.

One short stare fight later, Cristina narrowed her eyes and gave the emo the "I'm watching you" gesture before leaving.

"Weird," was Lucy's sole response.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _And then Lori grabbed Lincoln's shirt, pulled him up and growled, "Hey, twerp, why didn't you tell us you got a VR game?"_

 _"I was worried that you would get angry because this game is about dating you!" Linc hastily answered._

 _"Well, too bad, now we're angry because you didn't tell us about it!" Lori hissed before dropping Linc. "And to compensate, you'll let us play this game for a while. Perhaps until we feel satisfied or something."_


	3. And Then There Were A Bunch of Players

The next day, Lincoln went downstairs only to find all 10 of his sisters checking out the game, with Lisa wearing the helmet.

"Just as I suspected, this is a virtual replication of Royal Woods, created by some VR game company to allow people to experience a real-life replica of what life is at Royal Woods. And then they turned it into a dating simulator," the little genius remarked.

Lisa saved her profile, took off the helmet and continued her explanation as Lincoln joined the sisters.

"According to further research, and by that I mean just checking the game's code a little bit closer, the only girls available for dates are us, though with extra lurking inside I could find out that Linc, Clyde, the redheaded girl and Bobby's sister were supposed to be included as well."

"And why didn't they make the cut?" Luna inquired.

"How am I supposed to know?" Lisa responded, sounding genuinely annoyed. "I'm a genius, not a game developer."

And then Lori grabbed Lincoln's shirt, pulled him up and growled, "Hey, twerp, why didn't you tell us you got a VR game?"

"I was worried that you would get angry because this game is about dating you!" Linc hastily answered.

"Well, too bad, now we're angry because you didn't tell us about it!" Lori hissed before dropping Linc. "And to compensate, you'll let us play this game for a while. Perhaps until we feel satisfied or something."

So Lori got up, walked over Lincoln and put on the VR helmet. "Yeah, do whatever you want with it, I only brought it here because I figured Cristina would give it to us eventually," as he continued talking, Lori got off Lisa's file and went on to create a new one. "It even had a note saying it was addressed to us."

"Speaking about her-" Lucy blurted.

"Be quiet, would you? I'm trying to make my character," Lori finished adding some details and the end result was a fair-skinned, redhead female teenager wearing green clothing.

"Why did you make your character a girl if you already know you can only date other girls?" Leni questioned.

"If the developers actually thought of that question, would they have given me the option in the first place?" Leni just shrugged as the screen changed to show a couple routes Lori could take: The park, the mall, the phone store, or a Mick Swagger concert. "Hmm...Logic would dictate I would be at the phone store, Luan at the park, Luna at the concert and Leni at the mall..."

After a couple seconds, Lori picked the mall, which surprised her siblings. "I know you probably expected me to pick myself, but that would be a pretentious and narcissistic route to take."

Naturally, nobody fell for her lies. "And if my character's going to be a lesbian, then she'll be lesbian for Leni!" Lori said, blushing and looking away.

"Yay, lesbian for me!" Leni proclaimed in excitement. After blinking twice, the teenager tilted her head and said, "I get the feeling I shouldn't be happy about it."

"While you go do that, I'll see if I can create some spare VR helmet copies, set up a couple of systems and such to allow everybody to play it from their rooms, and create a master system to connect the game to all the setups, so we can all play the game," Lisa remarked. "After all, the faster we avoid yet another fight for control over something, the better."

She paused for a moment to contemplate how much work she'd have to do before she approached her brother. "Lincoln, do you want a setup as well?"

Linc was confused at the question. "Why do you ask me?"

"You brought the game, silly," Lisa answered, rolling her eyes. "I just figured you would probably want a setup as well."

"Well...I guess so-"

"I'll take that as a yes," and so Lisa went upstairs, but not before saying, "By the way, you picked Lynn as your first date? Seriously?"

And the rest of the girls giggled as Lynn shrugged and said, "Hey, you didn't think I would only tell them about the game, did you?"

Not wanting to respond, Lincoln stomped his way back to his bedroom.

 _A couple hours later..._

Lincoln was awoken when a bright light suddenly appeared in his room, coming from where his closet would be. Once he rubbed his eyes, he saw it was a VR game system attached to the wall, with Lisa and a VR helmet sitting next to it.

"Your system's done, have fun with it," Lisa stated.

Lincoln checked the setup and, seeing it was very similar to the one in the living room, he gave Lisa a thumbs up as he said "Thanks for the setup, Lisa!" and put on the VR helmet.

"If you'd like a suggestion: pick me as your first date," Lisa responded. "Whatever nonsense you're planning to do, I'm bound to be easier to handle than someone like Lynn."

Linc turned to the 4-year-old, whose face turned red like a tomato as she held her head low and left the room. "Wait, where are you going?" Linc asked.

"I'm going to take it upon myself to figure out why that redheaded girl you like had this game and console with her," and so, the 4-year-old genius left the room, but not before hesitantly giving Lincoln one last warning: "Remember, play my route. Or at the very least, pick a girl who is significantly more tolerable than Lynn!"

And with her gone, Linc looked around in confusion, then just shrugged and started to play his game. However, as soon as he reached the character select screen, he saw the database was completely empty.

"Oh, come on, I barely made my character a couple hours ago!" the boy complained. "Well, guess I just got to go through the whole character creation bit all over again."

And so, the guy went through the whole character creation bit as Lucy went into his bedroom. "Hey, Lincoln?" she asked, catching his attention. "I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

Linc almost paused his game and turned to Lucy, but he soon shrugged it off and went back to his character creation, believing he could hear his sister and create his character at the same time. "What is it?"

Lucy hesitated for a moment before being as blunt as possible: "I was hoping you could play my route." Lincoln just rolled his eyes and turned to his character creation as Lucy continued to explain herself, "Please don't take this the wrong way, but, um, I believe I'm easier to deal with than Lynn. That, and, while I can't tell you anything definitive, I just want you to have a good time, and I don't know if the other girls can provide it...you understand, right?"

"Yeah, sure Lucy, I'll do that later," the guy blurted, not really paying attention to the conversation anymore.

The emo felt a chill go up her spine as she blushed and clasped her hands, apparently in deadpan rejoice. "Y-You will?"

"Yeah, just let me finish my character and I'll see what I can do," Lincoln answered.

Believing her brother listened to her, Lucy smiled and nodded before leaving Lincoln to his game.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _He just responded with a confused, "Christina who?"_

 _And Lisa retorted, "Just, Christina."_

 _"Listen kid, there are many kids with the name Christina, unless you have a surname I'm just gonna guess this Christina you're looking for is not somebody important, therefore you're disturbing the peace of the park and I need to stop you," the ranger explained._

 _"But Linc never told me her surname," and that's when she got an idea. "Perhaps she's refrained from revealing her surname, so she would end up being harder to find," the little girl scratched the ranger's beard as she uttered, "Clever girl."_


	4. The Dates

_Back at the Loud House..._

All the kids, minus Lisa and Lily, were busy playing the VR sim date game. Among these players were Lynn and Lucy, who were basically dating each other...'s virtual replicas in the game. So far, Lynn was in the middle of her first date with Lucy, which was in the middle of a graveyard with some spaghetti and meatballs served.

"You know, this is probably the creepiest date I've ever been to," and, knowing her sister a bit well, she soon added, "I love it!"

"I am pleased you're enjoying this as much as I am. I rarely get to spend some time here with a person who doesn't get spooked in an instant," Lynn laughed as Virtual Lucy smiled and added, "You know, you remind me a lot of my sister, Lynn. Aggressive, loud, energetic-"

"Hey! That... is actually pretty accurate." Lynn remarked with a chuckle.

This made Virtual Lucy suspicious. "How would you know?" she asked, making Lynn cover her mouth.

"I, uh, heard some rumors, from a little bird," she hastily responded with a sheepish smile.

A couple seconds of contemplation later, Virtual Lucy turned away as she blurted, "Perhaps I need to watch Walt more often..." and Lynn wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed hanging out with me. I hope we can hang out again."

"Sure thing, creepylips!" Lynn replied, pulling off a couple poses as Lucy heard her nearby. "Today, tomorrow, next week, next year, whenever and wherever you want, baby!"

And so, Lucy blushed and turned back to her game as Virtual Lucy giggled, got up, shook hands with Lynn's character and left as a bar with her head appeared. It filled with a purple color as a "25%" appeared underneath the girl's head, and soon enough, Lynn was back in her character's bedroom.

"Okay, that was fun," the sports junkie said as she saved her file and took off her helmet, which released some minor green lighting. "Now to to do something sports-related...or maybe..."

Placing her helmet next to her console, Lynn sneaked towards Lucy, who was busy seemingly walking around the Loud House. Once she was close enough, she poked her back...and was disappointed when the girl didn't even react.

"Oh come on, that didn't scare you?" Lynn whined.

"I'm not in the mood to show proper human emotions, sister," Lucy answered as Lynn watched her sister's game. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm looking around the house."

This caught Lynn's attention. "Wait a minute, who are you dating?"

"You."

"So, wait, you got me to bring you to our house?" Lynn questioned, earning a couple nods from her sister. "How?!"

"I remained behind with you at the field and played a game with you." Lynn looked at the ground as she added. "I ended up playing the game so badly, you decided to bring me to your house in order to teach me how to properly play it."

Lynn scratched the back of her head. "Hmm, weird."

"Touche," Lucy stopped in front of Virtual Lincoln. "Now shut up, I'm going to talk to Lincoln."

So Lucy pressed Virtual Lincoln's face, and one surprised yelp from the virtual guy later, a cutscene happened where Virtual Lynn and Virtual Lincoln...well:

 _"Lynn!"_

 _"Lincoln!"_

 _"Lynneal!"_

 _"Linc!"_

 _"Lynnealy Radicalynn!"_

 _"Linc Linckety Split!"_

 _"Lyyyyynn!"_

 _"Liiiiiinc!"_

And then, silence.

"So, how's everything going?" Virtual Lincoln asked.

"Good, I brought a friend home," Virtual Lynn answered. "Say hi new friend."

Lucy nervously waved hello as the cutscene ended, and by the time Lucy could move her character again, Lynn was on the ground, clutching her stomach as she laughed like a hyena.

"What just happened?" Lucy inquired.

"That was our very special secret brother-sister greeting!" Virtual Lynn answered. "Ssh, don't tell anybody."

A couple seconds of silence later, Lucy briefly took off her helmet and turned to her laughing sister. "Lynn, do you and Lincoln have a very special secret brother-sister greeting?"

"No, but we're so going to have one from now on!" the sports-obsessed girl answered in the middle of her laughter.

 _Meanwhile, with Lisa..._

The four-year-old girl looked around the park for clues to Christina's whereabouts, analyzing tree to tree and park goer to park goer until the park ranger stopped her. "Good sir, you seem to be deterring my investigation for the whereabouts of a student known as Christina," Lisa told the ranger.

He just responded with a confused, "Christina who?"

And Lisa retorted, "Just, Christina."

"Listen kid, there are many kids with the name Christina, unless you have a surname I'm just gonna guess this Christina you're looking for is not somebody important, therefore you're disturbing the peace of the park and I need to stop you," the ranger explained.

"But Linc never told me her surname," and that's when she got an idea. "Perhaps she's refrained from revealing her surname, so she would end up being harder to find," the little girl scratched the ranger's beard as she uttered, "Clever girl."

One slap later, the ranger dragged Lisa to the park's exit. "Whatever, listen kid, I'm afraid you have to go."

"Fine, but my investigation is not over," the genius proclaimed. "I will find this Christina and discover the truth behind that game she had."

And so the girl left the park as the ranger exclaimed, "Continue with your business, nothing important happened here!"

 _Back at the Loud House..._

Lori and Leni were playing their games, with Leni checking out the virtual mall and Lori dating a Virtual Leni. Currently, Leni was at the mall, looking around the many stores as her virtual self walked to her side. "Hello," Virtual Leni greeted.

This made Leni jump startled, but she soon calmed down once she saw who she was talking to. "Oh wow, Leni Loud! What are you doing here?"

"It's the mall, I'm always here," Virtual Leni answered, raising an eyebrow.

"Really? Me too! It's like a second home to me!" Leni responded, clasping her hands.

"I don't know how to take that, but I'm going to guess you're a nice girl," Virtual Leni gave Leni's character a quick look before adding, "Hey, my sister Lori told me that a girl flirted with her earlier today. Was that you?"

Leni blushed and twiddled her fingers, and by proxy so did her character. "Guilty!" she chirped.

"Well, she kind of has a boyfriend already, so if I were you, I would flirt with somebody else," and then, Virtual Leni got an idea. "Still, maybe if you tried to get on her good side first, she wouldn't be nearly as abrasive with you."

And so, Virtual Leni left a contemplating Leni behind. "Yeah, virtual me is right, Lori, you need a personality check," she blurted out loud.

"Well, you need a brain check!" Lori hissed.

After processing the statement, Leni turned to her sister and asked, "Those are a thing?" while mentally thinking, _"Don't trigger me, sister."_

...Just as Virtual Leni asked the exact same thing. "No, Leni, I'm not telling this to you, I'm telling this to somebody else," Lori told Virtual Leni.

"But we're the only ones around here," Virtual Leni responded, placing her hands on her hips. "Or is somebody watching us from afar?"

And then Virtual Lori popped out of the bushes and slowly sneaked out of the screen. "Look over there!" Lori exclaimed, pointing at her virtual counterpart.

Virtual Leni turned to the direction, and chased after Virtual Lori as the real Lori turned to Leni and told her, "Okay, Leni, now I'm going to be as clear as possible: don't mess with me while I'm playing!"

"I was just saying what I had in mind," Leni shrugged.

Lori just shook her head and went back to her game. Meanwhile, with Luan and Luna, they had their own issues with their games: Luan was in the middle of a date with Virtual Luna, and she was supposed to give her a gift, but all she had were pranks like rubber chickens, whoopee cushions and so on.

 _"Why didn't I buy something music-related while I had the chance?!"_ the comedian whined in her mind.

As she pondered the question of the century-or at least a close equivalent-Luna was trying to come up with a good joke to tell Virtual Luan, who was wondering how good she was. "I must think of something good, Luan probably has high standards for bad jokes..."

And this is what she came up with, "What do you bell that makes the same sound as a cow? A cowbell!"

Surprisingly enough, Virtual Luan's laughter proved she found the joke good. "That was a good one!" Virtual Luan said, slapping her knee as her bar filled up with a yellow color and changed to 15%.

 _"No, that joke was terrible!"_ Luna thought, which soon changed her mood to unimpressed. _"Well, of course she liked it, then."_

And back with Luan, the girl caved in and handed Virtual Luna a random prank item. This immediately decreased Virtual Luna's bar from 20% to 15%, though the virtual girl's look didn't express much discomfort or annoyance at the gift.

"Listen, while I'm not particularly thrilled by this gift, I think you just gave me an idea," Virtual Luna remarked before saving the prank object in her pockets. "I'll keep this for the moment. Now, got anything else, or do you want to leave?"

Believing her "arsenal" would bring her nothing but trouble, Luan simply left while Virtual Luna got ready to invade the stage. And so, back at her character's bedroom, Luan saved her game and took off her helmet, wherein she saw Luan doing the same...but with a more pessimistic mood.

"That could have gone better," she remarked as she sat on her bed.

"What's wrong, Luan?" Luna asked as she paused her game and went to her sister...oh, and she took off her helmet as well.

"I forgot to buy your virtual self a gift, so I gave her a prank item and...I don't think she liked it..."

"I know! How about I coach you into dating me correctly?" Luna suggested. "I'm sure you'll learn how to properly flirt with me in no time!"

At first the comedian grew confused at her sister's suggestion, but she soon shrugged it off and said "Okay!" in a positively eager tone.

"Okay, in exchange, can I flirt with you?" Luna asked, seemingly failing to grasp the implications.

"I guess so," Luan shrugged.

"Hey, baby, how about we go out and blast some waves, you know what I'm saying?" Luna wrapped her arm around Luan's shoulder and acted like she was revealing a pair of tickets. "I got a couple tickets to a Mick Swagger concert, would you like to go with me, baby buns?"

Luan wasn't impressed. "You still need to _sharpen_ your skills, hehehe."

Meanwhile, Lincoln was in the middle of a mud fight with Virtual Lana when he heard his phone ringing. So he paused the game, took off his helmet and his phone and answered the call, "Hello?"

"Lincoln, you may not believe me, but I need your assistance," the voice from the other end said, sounding particularly annoyed.

"Lisa?" Lincoln asked.

"Yes, it's me, Lisa," the girl confirmed. "Listen, I was wondering if you have any clue where this Christina girl you like could be, 'cause I've been looking around everywhere and I can't find her."

"Well, have you tried checking the school?"

A long silence passed.

"That didn't even cross your mind, did it?" Linc guessed.

Lisa simply responded "Thanks for the help, Linc" before hanging the phone.

And so Lincoln returned to his game just as a pair of ear-piercing screams were heard across the hallways. The screams came from Lana and Lola's room, where the twins had suddenly remembered something:

"We forgot to buy presents!"

And so, the pair immediately went to the mall to buy some presents for their play dates. That is, until they saw the clock, which remembered them of another important thing:

"We have hall monitor duty today!"

So the pair took off their helmets, grabbed their hall monitor stuff and ran as fast they could to the school. "We did save, right?" Lola pondered.

"Less talking, more running!" Lana growled.

Speaking of the school, Lisa reached the building and started to look for Christina. She analyzed every place she could find: the cafeteria, the classrooms, and the lockers. But outside of a couple nerds inside the lockers-and Clyde-she failed to find any clue to Christina's whereabouts.

And then, she came across the girl, who was checking her locker.

"Uh-huh! There you are!" Lisa remarked as she went to and grabbed the startled girl.

She soon proved herself to be more than capable of dragging the little girl around, then again, Lisa was just 4.

"Stop this instant, I just want to ask you a couple questions!" Lisa exclaimed as she took out her notepad. "Why did you have a VR Sim date game about us, among other important questions."

And then, Christina was forced to stop when the hall monitors blew their whistles at her. They handed her a detention order and Lisa was shocked to see it was Lana and Lola. "That's what you get for running on the hallways!" Lana stated.

"Lola? Lana?" Lisa uttered, utterly confused. "I thought you were back at home, playing the VR game."

"We were, but we remembered we had hall monitor duty today, so we decided to take a break from it," the twins explained. "By the way, you're not allowed to follow after a student who's been sent to detention."

Lisa was shocked. "What?! Why not?"

"Because only students who get detention can join their fellow troublemakers," Lola said.

"And you're not part of this school, so no matter what you do, you won't go to detention," Lana added.

Giving the redheaded girl one last look, Lisa begrudgingly left the school as Christina blew a raspberry at her.

 _"Heh, she thinks I'm just going to drop my investigation here and there,"_ the genius thought, chuckling as she narrowed her eyes and smirked. _"She's so wrong."_

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"Whenever Lincoln or any of us-but mostly Lincoln-do something wrong, I only tell dad for a reason!" this only got Lola even more looks from her siblings. "I'm being honest here!"_

 _"Is mom really that bad?" Linc asked._

 _"I got my obnoxiousness from her. There's your answer."_


	5. Slight Changes

At the kiddie table, Lincoln was talking with his younger sisters about his experiences with the VR game. From what he could see, everybody but Lisa had a good time.

"And then, Virtual Lana bombarded me with mud projectiles," Linc finished.

"I'll teach you how to dodge them later," Lola gave Lincoln a wink. "And in return, you can teach me how to make a mud cake."

Linc returned the wink. "That's a promise."

"That does sound like something I would do," Lana remarked with a chuckle. "But hey, at least I didn't force you to go through a fashion, not like Virtual Lola."

"Now my mind has been imprinted with the most horrifying image today: Lana wearing a dress," Lucy stated.

"Actually, she looks pretty good in a dress," Linc said, with Lana nodding in agreement and Lola trying her hardest not to laugh.

Lucy shivered, "I'll take your word for it."

"So, how was Virtual Lynn?" Linc asked.

"She was...like Lynn, but..." the emo fell silent. "I'm sorry, I don't know how to answer your question. The best I can say is that she was like and unlike Lynn. And I enjoyed her company."

Everybody, except Lisa and Lincoln, went "Oooh" as Lucy blushed and looked away. Lincoln saw Lisa was giving the twins an angry look and asked, "What's wrong, Lisa?"

"I was about to catch her! I saw Christina at the school, and I was about to get her to spill the beans about the game," and then the little genius pointed at the twins. "But then these two ruined it!"

"Hey, we had hall monitor duty!" Lola hissed.

"Yeah, what were we supposed to do? Let you and that red girl break a lot more school rules?" Lana added.

"Better than jeopardize my search for the truth!" Lisa growled, slamming her fist into the table...only to quickly regret it. "Ouch, my hand!"

The little genius silently cried as he siblings immediately brought some medical stuff and bandaged her injured hand.

Meanwhile, at the adult table, the older Louds were surprisingly quiet while they ate their food with Mr. and Mrs. Loud.

"You know, for a family with the surname Loud, we sure are pretty quiet tonight, aren't we?" Luan joked.

Her siblings just gave her an exasperated look, causing the comedian to go back to eating. "Well, joke or not, Luan is right in that you're all pretty quiet tonight," Mr. Loud said, making his daughters look away. "Is there something bothering you?"

"Nothing, dad!" they answered in unison and with nervous smiles.

However, deep inside their minds, they knew what the problem really was. As they ate, they couldn't help but think about the VR sim date game in their minds.

 _"I swear I've never felt...whatever_ this _is towards Lucy before,"_ Lynn thought. _"All I did was go on a date with her virtual self but, after seeing how much they are alike and how nice she can be, even with the gloom...I'm not sure what it is, but I'm feeling something..."_

 _"I don't know what's more worrisome, the fact that I'm actually considering making a couple bad jokes just in case for my second date with Virtual Luan, or the fact that Luan seems to be refusing to look at me,"_ Luna thought as she gave Luan a look, with the comedian soon avoiding eye contact with her. _"Is it something I said? Did I tell a joke so bad even she failed to find it funny? Why won't you look at me, Luan?"_

 _"Luna please, don't look at me like that,"_ Luan mentally pleaded as she tried to not look at Luna's worried stare. _"First I fail to live up to your virtual self's expectations, and now you're giving me that look? I'll be a good date, I'll make you feel appreciated, I promise! Just...please stop staring at me!"_ one quick glance later, Luan once again avoided eye contact when she saw Luan was still looking at her. _"Good lord, she's still looking at me!"_

 _"Oh my god, I can't believe I didn't take into account what Bobby would think about this!"_ Lori panicked, though the most she showed was an utterly terrified look on her face. _"What will he think of me if he finds out I'm dating my sister, even if it's a virtual version? Will he break up with me? Will he think less of me? Will he...will he..."_

 _"I honestly have no idea why everybody's so upset,"_ Leni thought, and her neutral mood soon turned into a worried one. _"And I believe that might be the reason why I'm worried too."_

And soon enough, the teenagers' moods made the atmosphere to upsetting to be ignored. "Okay, you most definitely have an issue with something," Mrs. Loud stated, folding her arms. "What is it?"

The teens froze in place, and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't think of anything to say. "Come on, girls, you know you can trust your mother and me when you have issues you need to resolve," Mr. Loud said. "Granted, it's mostly your mother who you can trust, but it's the same idea."

"Listen...it's not so simple," Lynn remarked.

"Yeah, we promised Lincoln we wouldn't tell anybody about...it," Luan added.

"Although, if you put me in the shower," Luna pondered out loud, earning angry looks from her sisters. "I would shut up so I wouldn't spoil anything."

"So, just to be clear, you're not going to tell us what's bothering you?" Mrs. Loud asked, her anger evident in her tone. Nonetheless, the teens nodded with disappointed frowns, "Well, if you promised Lincoln not to tell anybody about it, then I'm going to talk to him."

And so, Mrs. Loud went to the kiddie table as the teenagers could only watch. Once there, she saw Lisa holding back her tears while holding her bandaged hand. "Oh my gosh, Lisa!" the woman quickly went to the girl and lifted her. "What happened?"

In the middle of her pain, Lisa tried her best to explain: "I slammed my fist into the table in a fit of rage because-"

Mrs. Loud immediately grabbed Lisa and lifted her, "Tell me later, first you must go back to your room and rest."

"But I only hurt my hand," Lisa argued.

"Better safe than sorry!"

And so, Mrs. Loud went back upstairs as the remaining younger Louds, and Lincoln, soon realized what this could mean. "Mom's going to find out about the VR game sooner or later," Lucy remarked. "If Lisa doesn't tell her first, that is."

"Well, one thing's for sure," Linc turned to Lola, "Don't tell her anything!"

"You don't need to tell me twice," Lola responded.

Lana was surprised. "Wait, you weren't planning to tell her about it?"

"Whenever Lincoln or any of us-but mostly Lincoln-do something wrong, I only tell dad for a reason!" this only got Lola even more looks from her siblings. "I'm being honest here!"

"Is mom really that bad?" Linc asked.

"I got my obnoxiousness from her. There's your answer."

Shuddering at the thought, the younger Louds decided to continue eating while ignoring they had that conversation, while the older Louds silently ate their food until they were finished. With that done, the first thing they did-after washing the dishes of course-was go back to their rooms and return to their business.

The first one to return was Lynn, who noticed Lucy was nowhere to be seen.

"Good, without Lucy, I can focus on what's going on with me," she started walking back and forth as she pondered just what was going on with her. "I never felt anything like this towards anyone before. I feel...I don't even know, when I see Lucy, I can't help but notice how she's a lot...prettier? I can't think of the word right now."

She sat down her bed and scratched her chin in contemplation.

"But what could give me this sensation? What could bring forth this...feeling?" she thought as she looked around, looking for a potential reason. "Am I just seeing my sister as something other than a creepy little goth now? Have I had these feelings for a while and just now they come out?"

And then, she turned to the VR game and came to a conclusion.

"Is the game the problem?"

But soon enough, she discarded that possibility. "Nah! That can't be the reason! After all, a simple game wouldn't give me something like this, right?" and then came the doubt. "It wouldn't, right?"

However, something soon caught her attention: Lucy's open drawer. She went closer to it and took out a pair of stripped arm sleeves and knee socks. _"I always wondered why Lucy wore these,"_ Lynn thought as she gave the articles of clothing a look.

She promptly put them on, and felt...surprisingly comfortable in them. She went to a mirror nearby and did some poses while showing off the arm sleeves and knee socks.

"Huh, these aren't half-bad actually," the sports fanatic remarked. "They're definitely not my style, though-"

"What are you doing with my clothes?"

Lynn jumped onto the ceiling and clung to it like a cat, though she soon hit the ground when she saw it was just Lucy. However, from her posture-arms crossed on her front and not her back, wider frown than usual-she could tell she wasn't exactly happy.

"Um, I was, uh, you see, um," Lynn took a deep breath and answered, "Y-You see, I always wondered why you wore these, so I s-simply put them on, and I was going to-"

"Sigh, you can keep them," the goth muttered in disgust.

Lynn was overjoyed. "Really?!" but she soon changed her tone to a more surprised, subdued one. "I mean, uh, really?"

"You contaminated them the instant you put them on," the goth explained as she headed to her bed. "I am not in the mood to decontaminate them, so I'll go the easy way and give them to you. Consider them a hand-me-down, or maybe a hand-me-up, all things considered."

Lynn nodded with a nervous smile, all while she joyously rejoiced in her mind.

 _"...There's something wrong with me,"_ Lynn thought, freezing in place.

Up next were Luna and Luan, who avoided looking at each other as they did their business: Luna adjusted her guitar, while Luan was trying to make a routine with Mr. Coconuts where he recited the alphabet while she drank some water. Sadly, this proved to be harder than she thought.

"Hey, Luan?" Luna asked.

The comedisn answered, without looking at her sister, "Yeah?"

"Listen, I've been thinking about how we're doing in the game, and I just had an idea. It might be crazy, though, so brace yourself," Luna explained.

"Sis, I've been bracing myself for a while now," Luan answered, pointing at her braces as she laughed.

"Hehehe, yeah..." the rockstar took a deep breath and then asked, "Would you go out on a date with me?"

The sheer shock from the question caused Luan to not only spit out her water, but cause her flowers to squirt water everywhere. "I guess that's a no?" Luna uttered.

After recovering from the shock, Luan spoke through Mr. Coconuts: "Well, little missy, I think you may have been a bit too blunt there. But first and foremost, are you sure you want to do this? Date your own sister?"

"Well, when I say go out on a date with me, I mean as in hang out, just the two of us," Luna explained, and Luan put Mr. Coconuts down as she added, "I promise there won't be any romantic stuff, and I'll try my best to make this as least awkward as possible."

Luan rubbed her shoulder and looked away before asking, "Just the two of us? All alone?"

Luna's face turned red as she nodded, "D-Definitely."

After a couple seconds of silence, Luan added, "Would...you like to do it next weekend, 3 pm? Go hang out...somewhere?"

"Sure, we can do that!" Luna's tone turned more subdued as she twiddled her fingers. "I-If you're up to it, I mean."

Luan gave Luna an embarrassed smile and said, "It's a date!"

And another short silence later, the duo went back to their business.

Meanwhile, at Leni and Lori's bedroom, Lori sat sadly at her bed, looking at the VR helmet with a look of hesitation when Leni went to her side. "Hi Lori!" Leni greeted, but Lori only responded with a half-baked smile. "What is it?"

"...Leni, if you were dating someone in real life, and you were playing a game where you date other people..." the teenager hesitated, but finished nonetheless, "W-Would you be...cheating on them?"

"Well, that sounds like a stupid idea, so it definitely sounds like something I would do," Leni responded. "However, I think that as long as I could balance real dating with virtual dating, and I put primary attention to the real dating, I wouldn't consider myself cheating. Why do you ask?"

Lori took a look at her VR helmet and put it on the ground. "I'm worried Bobby will think I'm cheating with him because I'm dating you in the game and not him."

And soon after she said that, she realized something and bolted to Lisa and Lily's bedroom, where she saw the little genius resting on her bed. "Lisa, how long will it take your hand to be fully healed?"

The smart girl adjusted her glasses as she answered with a matter-of-fact tone, "A couple days at best, why do you ask?"

The teenager soon went to Lisa's side and met her face-to-face. "I need you to go look for something in the game's files."

And as that happened, Lola and Lana were-what a shock-having an argument.

More specifically, Lola was having the argument while Lana listened in exasperation, "Now listen up, Lana, if you're going to play my route, you have to take a couple things into consideration: never give me anything mud-related or dirty, always agree with what I say, and most importantly-"

"Why do you care?" Lana blurted.

This caught the twin's attention, so she gave Lana a look as she asked, "What do you mean?"

"I'm hanging out with a virtual version of yourself, not with the real you," Lana explained. "So why do you care if I even know how to properly date you or hangout with you or something?"

"Because, from what I can see from the game itself, they're pretty accurate representations," Lola clasped her hands and smirked. "For example, your virtual self is dirty, rude, and utterly obnoxious."

This got on Lana's nerves. "Well, your virtual self is an unbearable, spoiled little brat! How's that for accuracy?"

And soon enough, the twins grew hostile towards each other. "Well, outside of being dirty and rude, your virtual self is an utter idiot, just like Leni!" Lola hissed.

"And your virtual self is bossy and obnoxious, just like Lori!" Lana retorted.

"And you would never know anything about being feminine even if your life depended on it!"

"And you would never get your pretty little nails or frilly little princess dress dirty, even if your life depended on it!"

But then, they paused for a moment to catch their breath before saying in unison, "But even with all that in mind, I can't bring myself to hate you!"

And then, they let out a sigh of relief, followed by a stunned silence.

"...Wait, what?" they asked, once again in unison.

The twins shook their heads and Lola was the first to ask, "Repeat what you said!"

"No, you first!" Lana retorted.

So, seeing that fighting would not get them anywhere, the twins took a deep breath, calmed down slightly and promptly stated, "but even with all that mind, I still can't bring myself to hate you..."

The twins pondered about what that meant before they parted to their beds and tried to fall asleep. However, that proved to be easier said than done, since they couldn't get that statement out of their minds...

 _"You still can bring yourself to hate me?"_ they thought before promptly covering their heads with their pillows.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"Oh hey, you're one of Lame-O's million sisters, right?" Ronnie said, no doubt angering the emo. "Or were you 10? Your family's so numerous, it's pretty easy to lose count."_

 _Lucy formed a pair of fists and calmly explained, "Listen up, Ronnie, I'm not just going to let you take my brother away from me. If you want him for yourself, you will have to deal with most of us. So, don't mess with him, got it?"_

 _"Geez, I expected his older sisters to be protective, but not you," Lucy was taken aback. "Listen, Lame-O and I are just friends, nothing more than that. So relax and let it go, got it?"_

 _Lucy begrudgingly nodded._


	6. Discovered

The next day arrived, and the Louds quickly got prepared for the day and then promptly went downstairs to their respective tables. On the kids' table, nothing much of interest happened, outside of Lucy looking at Lincoln for an extended period of time, and Lola and Lana occasionally looking at each other but mostly avoiding eye contact.

And then, when Lisa joined the "Watching-Lincoln-for-a-Long-Time" club, the guy tried to focus on eating his food as he thought, _"Why is everybody looking at me now?"_

Lucy and Lisa's staring, in particular, had a small sense of sentiment in them. It was more notable with Lisa, since her hair wasn't covering her eyes 24/7 like the Duchess of Darkness.

However, when he tried to look back at the girls, Lucy and Lisa flinched and looked away as fast as possible. _"Are they angry or something?"_ when the boy took a closer look, however, he saw both girls were... blushing. Like they were embarrassed or something, _"Wait, what?"_

"Why were you two looking at me?" Lincoln asked to Lucy, who shyly responded, "N-No reason... Y-You're nice to look at, I guess."

Well, that was an answer. Not one that Lincoln found useful, but hey, it was better than nothing, and it was definitely better than having wieners slapping him in the face every once in a while. So Lincoln shrugged it off and continued eating, allowing the girls to sigh in relief.

On the adult table, however, Lynn-still wearing the arm sleeves and knee socks she got from Lucy-looked at her food while hopelessly thinking about Lucy, Lori looked at the ceiling while silently praying Lisa found what she requested, and Luan and Luna gave each other bedroom eyes before turning back to their food, blushing red as a tomato. Leni was basically the only older Loud who didn't exhibit any weird behavior, and even that was weird in and of itself.

"You're pretty calm today, girls," Mr. Loud remarked, pleasantly relieved.

"Looks like whatever was bothering you has been taken care of," Mrs. Loud remarked, clasping her hands in relief. "Do you feel better?"

The older Louds silently nodded. Unfortunately, this was not enough to convince the woman.

"Really now?" she asked, scratching her chin. "Well, if you don't feel bothered by...whatever bothered you before, then I presume you'll have no problem telling us what, exactly, made you all upset yesterday?"

The teens froze in place once again. "Well, mom, y-you see..." Lori stuttered.

"You told me you were feeling better, and I want to know what was bothering you," Mrs. Loud stated. "So f you're feeling better, then you can tell me what was bothering you, right?"

The older Louds remained silent and avoided eye contact, which made Mrs. Loud get off her chair and head for the kid table, "I'll go talk with Lincoln-"

"Stop!" the girls shouted in unison.

The woman stopped and turned to her children. "L-Listen, mom, we'll tell you what it is," Luna said, exchanging worried looks with Luan.

"Do you promise not to freak out or hurt us or whatever after we tell you?" Lynn asked.

"The only thing I promise is to punish all of you appropriately if this turns out to be bad enough," Mrs. Loud put her hand in the table and asked in the most crystal clear tone, "Now tell me: What. Is. It?"

The older Louds all exchanged looks as they tried to think of a way to tell their mother about the game, only for Leni to blurt it out: "Lincoln brought a VR sim dating game a couple days ago, and now all of us are acting weird because of it."

Once the explanation was over, Mrs. Loud remained silent for an uncomfortably long time. The Louds couldn't even notice any hint of anger, disappointment, or rage in her body movements, or anything at all. She was just...silent and motionless.

"Girls, I'll ask that you make sure to show me that game later," she finally responded, and the older Louds only grew more and more worried. "I have work today, and most of you have school today as well, so I want you all to stop thinking about that game and focus on your education."

And then she turned to Leni and Lori, "As for you two, one will return here and babysit Lisa and Lily, while the other goes on with her business, am I clear?"

Leni gave her mother a thumbs up while Lori simply nodded while looking utterly terrified.

And then she turned back to the rest of her children, "Once everybody's back, we'll take a look at that game and we'll see what we do from there, got it?" Mrs. Loud

The teenagers nodded just as quickly. "Good, now finish your breakfast," was the last thing Mrs. Loud said before returning to her seat.

And so, the older Louds continued to eat their food, though they did it with a notably slower speed than usual. In fact, they seemed to be shivering. And who could blame them? After what just happened, the thought that crossed their minds the most was that they were in deep, _deep_ trouble.

But nevertheless, once everybody had finished breakfast, they all went to do their business at either the school or their jobs...except for Lisa and Lily, who remained at their bedroom.

With most of the Louds gone, a figure came down the chimney and landed on the living room. This figure was Cristina, who-going by the large bag she was carrying-was apparently practicing how to imitate Santa Claus. Once she entered the house, the girl took a quick look around before smiling and heading upstairs, carrying the bag with relative ease.

Once upstairs, she looked at all the doors to decide which she would go to first, and she eventually picked Lucy and Lynn's bedroom. She went inside, took out some gadget and promptly used it to scan both Lynn and Lucy's VR helmets.

The first thing the gadget analyzed was the output of the inner mechanisms of the helmets, including a "B.M: I.R." chip located around the cranium. Once she saw the output fell in the "unfavorable" category, the redhead immediately worked to fix it.

She soon released Lucy's helmet after finding she hadn't even reached a date yet, therefore it wouldn't make a difference if she "fixed" it or not...that is, until she remembered she had another thing to try, and took out the chip in the helmet and replaced it with a blue chip marked with "B.M: O.P.L." and showing a shield on the front.

With that said and done, she went on to check Lynn's helmet, which she modified after seeing she was close to the second date.

So the silent redhead opened her bag and took out a pink chip with a picture: the female symbol inside a heart on the front, and "B.M: L.I.R." on the back. She opened the helmet, took out a chip with another picture-that of a simple heart-and replaced it with the pink chip before closing it and putting it back on the ground.

With that done, she left the room and promptly headed to all but one of the bedrooms, where she did the same thing to most helmets outside of Leni's. The only bedroom left was Lisa and Lily's, but no matter how hard she wanted to head in, she remembered her earlier encounter with the smart Loud at the school. So, believing her job was done, Cristina went downstairs and headed for the chimney...

Only to see it was boarded up.

"So, we meet again."

Recognizing the voice, Cristina frowned as she turned around to see a smug Lisa sitting at the couch.

"Long time no see, Cristina," Lisa said as she got off the couch and approached the redhead. "Listen, last time we met, I was going to ask you a couple simple questions, like why you had the VR game and so on."

The redhead stood her ground and glared defiantly.

"But now, some more important questions pop in my mind," Lisa adjusted her glasses as she gave the redhead a simple question: "Why are my sisters acting weird?"

Cristina gasped at Lisa's glasses and promptly broke through the boards until the chimney was open again. By then, Lisa had already cleaned her glasses, but it was too late: Cristina blew a raspberry before heading back up the chimney, leaving behind an annoyed Lisa.

However, the young Loud's annoyance soon turned into smug victory as she went to Lori and Leni's room and took out both the normal chip and upgraded chip brought by the redhead out of the helmets.

"Time to figure out what is up with these chips," Lisa thought as she went back to her laboratory, with the chips readily at hand.

 _Meanwhile, at the school..._

Lincoln approached Ronnie Anne, who was waving goodbye to a random kid. "Hi Ronnie," he said, catching her attention.

"Hi, Lame-O," she replied with a smile. "So, I heard you got a game from Cristina. Is that true?"

As the duo continued to talk, Lucy watched from the shadows, gripping the wall as she grew more and more worried the friendlier the kids' interaction got. _"First Lynn, and now Bobby's sister?"_ she thought, growing unsure. _"Why, Lincoln? Why do you pick girls that are hard to deal with?"_

Eventually, Lincoln separated from Ronnie and went on his way, giving Lucy the chance to come out into the light and reveal herself to Ronnie. "Greetings," she said in her usual deadpan tone.

"Oh hey, you're one of Lame-O's million sisters, right?" Ronnie said, no doubt angering the emo. "Or were you 10? Your family's so numerous, it's pretty easy to lose count."

Lucy formed a pair of fists and calmly explained, "Listen up, Ronnie, I'm not just going to let you take my brother away from me. If you want him for yourself, you will have to deal with most of us. So, don't mess with him, got it?"

"Geez, I expected his older sisters to be protective, but not you," Lucy was taken aback. "Listen, Lame-O and I are just friends, nothing more than that. So relax and let it go, got it?"

Lucy begrudgingly nodded.

"Besides, I'm not the person you should worry about," Ronnie added, catching the goth's attention. "Perhaps, the one you should worry about is closer to Lincoln than you think. Granted, she has a... relative, in the school, that will make sure she doesn't do any damage to him, but point is: I'm not the girl you should worry about."

"Then who am I supposed to worry about?" Lucy asked, tilting her head.

Ronnie chuckled to herself before answering, "4 subordinates to a particular redhead," and then she added, "Plus, a couple of traps, some forced manipulation, perhaps... even some of your sisters..."

"What are you implying, Santiago?" the emo crossed her arms.

Ronnie took a deep breath, "All I'm implying, is that you can't simplify the issue to a single individual. You must be wary of a lot of people. Don't trust anybody."

And with that said, Ronnie put her hands in her pockets and walked away as Lucy simply stood in place and watched. _"I'll make sure to figure out who are these people..."_ and then she returned to the darkness. _"but until then, I'll keep my eyes on you."_

Just as she went into the darkness, however, Lynn came out of nowhere and tried to join the shadows...only to hit the wall instead, with Lucy left seemingly unaware of Lynn's presence.

Once she got up and dusted herself, Lynn followed the shadow girl as she could only ponder, _"Why must you go where I can't follow, Lucy?"_

Meanwhile, back with Lincoln, he walked across the hallways as he looked for Cristina, hoping he could get an answer or two out of here this time. However, as he walked, he saw Lana and Lola, sitting on the ground and avoiding eye contact while twiddling their fingers, and Luan and Luna walking by, blushing as they held hands along the way.

"My sisters are acting weirder than usual," he remarked, growing more determined. "I really need to figure out what's going on."

And soon enough, Lincoln spotted Cristina... selling the VR sim date game-with seemingly updated helmets-to a bunch of random kids from his class, Clyde included. Lincoln soon went to Clyde and caught his attention by saying, "Clyde, what are you doing?!"

"Oh hi, Lincoln," Clyde was surprisingly nonchalant about the whole thing. "Cristina's selling these new VR games for 5 bucks each. Apparently I can date your sister with this system without bothering her, and for such a cheap price, how could I say no to such an offer?"

But just as Lincoln turned to the redhead, she had vanished.

"How does she keep doing that?" Lincoln pondered before focusing back on the matter at hand. "Clyde, ever since I got something like that game, my sisters have been acting weird. Could you please not play that for a while until I know what's going on?"

"Hmm...well, I have seen your sisters acting weirder than usual lately..." and so, Clyde shook hands with Lincoln. "Sure, I won't play this game until next week, that should give you enough time to figure out what's wrong with it."

Lincoln nodded and watched Clyde leave as he thought, _"Cristina, what are you up to?"_

 _Meanwhile, with Lori..._

The teenager went back inside the Loud house, where she took a deep breath as she leaned against the door. _"Okay, Lori, you can do this,"_ she thought as she went upstairs and towards Lisa and Lily's bedroom. _"You just have to babysit your younger sisters, that's it! Nothing more, and nothing less..."_

Once she entered Lisa and Lily's bedroom, however, the first thing Lori noticed was that Lisa watched as the chips she took out from the helmets were being analyzed by a small gadget... which had a whopping 2% of the analysis done.

"Lisa, what are you doing?" Lori asked.

"Analyzing," the girl answered as she adjusted her glasses, "Cristina came here a while ago, took out certain chips and replaced them with what I believe are upgraded versions of them. I'm currently waiting for this thing to finish so I can determine what's their purpose."

And that's when Lori realized something: "Wait a minute, those chips were inside the helmets all this time?"

"Pretty much," Lisa shrugged.

This earned the little genius a smack in the head from an angry Lori, who hissed. "And you made copies of those things as well without batting an eye?!"

"I figured these chips were basically irrelevant when it came to the 100% functionality of the helmets, but I still made copies just in case they were needed. However, it seems I was partially wrong." Lisa rubbed her head as she explained, "While the helmets don't require these chips to work, they do seem to be necessary in order to activate the helmets'...secondary function, let's call it that."

"Secondary function?" Lori wrapped her head around the thought for exactly two seconds before growing exasperated, "Lisa, I know you like to speak in big words very few people can understand, but can you please be more straightforward? What's going on?"

Lisa soon responded, "I barely started the analysis a couple moments ago, it will take a couple hours or even days for the analysis to be completed. Until then, all I can say is that these things could potentially be the reason behind our siblings' weird attitudes lately."

And after such worrisome news, Lori sat down Lisa's bed and looked at the ground. "Great, first I'm potentially cheating on my boyfriend with my sister's virtual self, and now there seems to be something wrong with the helmets!" she whined.

"Also, I failed to find any information in the game implying that Bobby was supposed to be in the game," Lisa nonchalantly added. "However, it seems that I was wrong regarding other things: It's possible to unlock Lincoln after all. But that would require completing all the other routes without reaching a negative progress bar."

"Negative progress bar?" Lori asked, her interest caught at the mention of the bar.

"Um, yes, further looking into the game code reveals it's possible to achieve a negative progress bar, which measures how much the virtual character in question hates you," Lisa explained, looking away with both worry and regret. "Some are easy to fill, some are hard to fill, point is, it's entirely possible to reach this bar with any character by doing even one mistake. Yes, including Bobby, if he was there in the first place."

And in the end, this little tidbit didn't help Lori at all. "Can't I get break?" she loudly wondered, sounding genuinely exhausted.

Hearing her older sister's lament, Lisa went to her side and brushed her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

 _A couple hours later..._

The remaining Loud siblings-Thus everybody except Lisa, Lori and Lily-returned home, and they remained in position alongside Lori as their mother and father went upstairs to check up the VR systems. Even when they were out of sight, the Louds couldn't help but continue feeling an authoritarian atmosphere, causing them to shiver in absolute terror.

 _"This is it, there's no turning back now,"_ Lincoln thought as he swallowed his fears... only for them to return in an instant.

"We're so dead," Lucy stated.

"Once mom and dad find the systems, we're done for," Lola uttered, trying to hold back her tears.

"Relax, guys, I'm pretty sure mom and dad will be understanding enough to not punish us so severely," Leni said, trying to calm her siblings down. That didn't change the fact that, deep down, she was just as terrified as everybody else.

And once again, as mom and dad checked the systems, the Louds could hear exactly nothing that could tell them how they were receiving the news. No stomping, no screaming, not even annoyed grunts, just pure, ambiguous silence.

That is, until mom said, "Kids, come here."

And so, the Louds immediately went upstairs and saw their mother and father, both with their arms folded.

"So, we saw the systems, saw the message, and saw your progress," Mrs. Loud said, causing her kids to nearly freak out before she added, "However, we got an idea for a compromise: we'll let this slide, and you can play today again if you want, but for the remainder of the week, I want all of you to stay as far away from this game as possible."

The Louds, though not completely freed from any terror or fear, at least calmed down enough to think about the deal and slowly nod in agreement. "Okay, so we have a deal: you can play if you want, but after that, hands off the game for the remainder of the week."

"And don't even think about touching the systems after today, otherwise..." Mr. Loud shuddered. "Well, I'm sure you know by now."

The Loud siblings quickly nodded and watched with nervous smiles as their mother and father went back downstairs. Once they were out of sight, the Louds all rejoiced...except for Lori, who looked at the wall with worry.

And Leni soon noticed this, "What is it, Lori?" she asked, catching her attention. "You have something you'd like to share?"

Remembering what Lisa told her, Lori pondered what to do: would she tell her siblings the truth, potentially making them panic after leaving such a tense situation before, or would she remain quiet and let them play, despite the potential for things to get even worse?

But in the end, she didn't have the heart to tell her siblings the truth, and simply said "Nothing" with a deadpan tone. Her siblings promptly went to play their games afterwards, except for Leni, who shrugged and said "Don't worry, you can tell me what's wrong later," before leaving.

And then a familiar voice spoke, "You didn't tell them anything?"

The teenager turned around and saw Lisa, with her arms crossed and an angry look in her face, standing nearby. "I...I didn't want to alarm them...they looked so happy after mom and dad gave them the compromise...I didn't want to ruin their happiness-"

"And you'd rather have them potentially alter their own personalities without even knowing about it?" Lisa sternly asked.

The teen fell silent and frowned before heading back to her and Leni's room. "Your indifference will bite us all in the butt later, Lori!" Lisa proclaimed before returning to her room.

Just as she grabbed the doorknob, Lori thought about what Lisa said, and as she went inside and closed the door, all she could mentally say was a regretful _"Dang it."_

Meanwhile, with the twins, Lana and Lola tried to decide whether to play their VR game or not, since they had another thing to worry about: their fellow twin. More specifically, Lana tried to decide since Lola just sat down, having a fake tea party with a couple of plushies.

So, not really feeling like playing the game anytime soon, the tomboy took a deep breath, approached Lola and said as she placed her hand in her shoulder, "We..." she paused, wondering if it was really the time to talk about anything. But nevertheless, she pushed on, "We need to talk."

"Funny, 'cause I have nothing to tell you," the girl growled as she got ready to slap Lana's hand away...only to gently take it off as she added, "What we told to each other earlier meant nothing, understood? I'm a pageant girl, you're a mud-obsessed disaster, and we like and hate each other equally, got it?"

Lana folded her arms as Lola served a bit of fake tea onto her cup. "Are you... Are you sure there's nothing to talk about?" Lana asked, leaning closer to Lola's face as both their faces grew more and more red.

The girl, without hesitation, took a quick look at her tea before dumping it all over her sister as she stated, " _Very_ sure."

"Listen, I know what we said to each other earlier was...weird," Lana stated, and Lola narrowed her eyes and looked away, trying to ignore her. "But...well, ignoring things never make things any better-I ignore you all the time after all-so, how about we focus on this so it doesn't bother us later?"

Lola remained silent and continued with her tea party, ignoring her sister altogether. "Forget it, you're impossible!" Lana snapped.

And so, Lana stomped her way to her bed and put her cap over her eyes as Lola turned to look at her, her expression showing slight worry and regret. "Listen, Lana-" she said, instantly catching her twin's attention.

Said twin, however, was not happy in the slightest. "Shut up! If you're not going to listen to me, then I'm not going to listen to you!" she hissed. "See how it feels!"

Lola almost choked as Lana went back to sleeping on her bed, and she even shed a couple of tears. However, she took a deep breath, wiped the tears off her cheeks and went back to her tea party, trying her hardest to accept Lana was not in the mood at the moment.

 _Meanwhile, at Luna and Luan's bedroom..._

The roommates played their VR games, with the helmets released pink electricity as the duo played their dates. And this time, they were going much better: Luna had Virtual Luan roaring with laughter and Luan was rocking out with Virtual Luna, who was absolutely having a blast at the date.

After a while, the dates finally ended and both virtual versions of Luan and Luna reached 50% in their dating bar, which started to glow a hot pink color. With that done, the girls saved their game, took off their helmets and shared a pair of high-fives.

"Thanks for making me _humerus_!" Luna said.

"Thanks for _rocking my socks_ off!" Luan replied.

And so, the teens laughed out loud for a while until their laughter slowly transformed into slightly awkward giggles. However, by the time they fell silent and although they wanted to separate, they continued to hold hands as they blushed and sheepishly smiled.

"Hey, Luan, about our date-" Luna grabbed Luan's hand with her free hand.

"You don't want to cancel it, do you?" the comedian worriedly asked.

"No, not in the slightest!" the rockstar hastily corrected herself, making Luan flinch in response. "I was just going to ask you where you would like to go."

"Oh, well, I think I know a cafe that combines comedy and hard rock in a pleasant mix," Luan briefly glanced at the window before finishing, "I can show you where it is tomorrow, and you can tell me if you want to have the date there."

"Sounds like a plan!" Luna eagerly exclaimed.

And Luan gave the rockstar a pleased smile, causing her to blush and look away.

 _At Lincoln's bedroom..._

Lucy slowly opened the door and went inside with yet another poem. "Hey Lincoln, can you-"

However, the first thing she saw-sort of-was Lincoln playing a chemistry mini game while Virtual Lisa watched nearby. "Oh, you're busy?" the goth went closer and took a better look at the boy's game. "Whose route is that?"

"Lisa's. I already did Lynn and Lana's, so I'm doing hers to see how it is," Lincoln's character carefully grabbed a couple of vials and leaned closer to a chemical. "It's pretty science-related, actually, and kind of difficult."

And then Lucy cut straight to the point: "Have you done my route yet?"

Lincoln suddenly did a mistake, which was all it took for him to lose the mini game and make Virtual Lisa's affection meter to go from 30% to 15%. Linc then took off his helmet, turned to Lucy and nervously told her, "Lucy, I'm busy right now, so can we talk about your poem later?"

"My poem?" Lucy turned to the piece of paper she held. "Okay, sure, but-"

And so Linc brushed Lucy's hair and said, "Great, talk to you later."

But the emo wasn't done, and she grabbed Linc's shoulder, turned him around and lifted his helmet before asking him in the most blunt tone possible, "You haven't even approached my route yet, have you?"

Linc rubbed his shoulder as he nervously answered, "W-Well... no, but-"

Without warning, Lucy's voice just... cracked as she desperately asked her brother, "What do Lynn, Lana and Lisa have that I don't? Why do you put them as your priority?"

Lincoln and Lucy exchanged stares as a long while passed, filled completely with nothing but solemn silence.

"Listen, I simply picked them first, don't take it as something personal," Linc put the helmet back on and turned back to his game, "I'll do your route next after finishing Lisa's, but please, let me finish first, okay?"

Lucy looked at the ground and sniffed, feeling betrayed. "But, Linc..." she meekly said, "you promised..."

But Lincoln didn't respond.

"Lincoln?"

Same result.

And so, seeing the boy wasn't in the mood to listen to her, Lucy shed a tear as she gave one look at her poem, with her hands shivering and her frown growing wider as she tried not to shed more tears. Not long afterwards, she threw it away and left the room just as it landed on Lincoln's bed.

Shortly afterwards, Lucy immediately went back to her and Lynn's bedroom, where the sports fan could immediately tell Lucy was pretty upset despite her unchanged exterior. That's what happens when you live with someone like Lucy for long enough.

"What's wrong, Lucy?" Lynn asked as Lucy went to her VR helmet.

The instant she touched the helmet, however, a stream of blue electricity struck her hand and she immediately backed away in fear.

"N-Nothing," Lucy stuttered as she unknowingly went to Lynn's side.

"Well, your attitude definitely says otherwise," Lynn responded, placing a hand in Lucy's shoulder. "Come on, you can tell me anything! Even the fact that you're into girls, if that's a thing!"

Internally, Lynn was smacking her head. "Shut up, me! You're going to make this more awkward than it already is!"

Lucy slapped Lynn's hand away and took a deep breath. "I'm...I'm worried...Lincoln...he hasn't played my route in the VR game."

"Oh, and why would that bother you?"

"Because he already has done the route for Lisa, Lana..." the emo paused, turned to Lynn and hissed, "And you."

Lynn visibly flinched at the hiss. "Oh snap, she sounds angry."

But then Lucy turned back to look at the floor and finished with, "And now, I don't know what to do."

As the emo took a deep breath and looked at the ground, Lynn swallowed her fears and sat next to her. _"Okay, Lynn, this is your chance."_ she thought as she wrapped her arm around Lucy's shoulder. _"Your little sister needs to be comforted, and you are the only one able to do it right now!"_

The instant she tried to say something, though, Lucy immediately punched her mouth shut, biting her tongue in the process. As the sports fan grabbed her mouth and tried not to scream, Lucy got up and headed back to the door.

"Listen, I don't know if you took my clothes because of some weird reason, or because you want to replace me or something." Lucy grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. "But if you, Lisa or Lana want to get Lincoln all for yourselves, you will have to give it your all."

Lucy left the room, and gave Lynn a look as she finished, "Because I'm not just going to let you take my brother away from me."

And then she closed the door, with Lynn catching her breath as she frowned in sympathy and confusion.

 _"Lucy..."_

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"Lori has something to tell you," Leni gave Lori a stern glare. "Isn't that right, Lori?"_

 _The teenager turned to Leni and meekly answered, "Y-Yes..."_

 _"Well, can't you tell us what she wants to say, Leni?" Luan asked. "Lori doesn't seem to be in condition to tell us anything."_

 _Leni shook her head. "No, this is something Lori has to tell you herself."_


	7. Literally What!

The next day arrived at the Loud house, and Lori and Leni were the first to wake up, with the former showing she had a troubled sleep going by her frenzied hair. Then, just as Leni reached for the door, Lori called "Wait!" and got her attention.

"L-Leni..."

Lori got off her bed, dusted herself and took a deep breath before adding, "I need to tell you something..."

"Sure, go ahead!" Leni chirped. "You know you can tell me anything!"

Lori wished it was as easy as Leni made it sound. She went to her VR helmet, disconnected it from the game system and went back to Leni, who tilted her head with a curious cat smile.

"Lisa told me something...troublesome about these helmets yesterday," Lori opened up her VR helmet and took out the chip Cristina installed in it...or at least, she tried to, only for intense pink lighting to send her flying into a wall.

"Lori!" Leni exclaimed as she ran after the shocked teenager. "Are you okay?"

"I probably should have been more careful," cue Plan B: Lori simply showed Leni the chip inside the helmet. "Lisa found these chips inside the helmets, and she said that they might be responsible for the personality changes our sisters have been experiencing."

Leni reached for the chip and, ignoring the electricity like it was nothing, took it out and gave it a closer look. Soon afterwards, she frowned and sternly asked, "Why didn't you tell the rest while you had the chance?"

"Because they had just come out of a tense situation, and I didn't want to upset them." Lori answered, nervously twiddling her fingers. "I honestly can't see why telling them worrisome news after that would be a good idea, so I remained silent."

Then she hesitantly added, "That, and I trust you."

Leni cracked the chip to pieces and left the room with a sour mood, but not before giving Lori a disappointed look.

Meanwhile, with Lincoln, he woke up and the first thing he noticed was the poem Lucy held yesterday. So, feeling like he had the time to read it, he read it to himself...and this immediately made him grow worried.

"I must find Lucy!" he proclaimed.

And so, the guy stormed his way out of his room...just as Lynn did the same, causing the two to crash. Once the two got up and dusted themselves, Linc quickly asked, "Lynn, have you seen Lucy lately?"

Lynn flinched and soon got on the defensive, "What makes you think I know where she is?"

Lincoln quickly explained, "Well, you not only are wearing her arm sleeves and knee socks for some reason, but I swear I heard a boy in my class say he saw you try to follow Lucy into the darkness in order to learn how to replace her."

"That story is a lie!"

Lincoln wasn't fooled.

"...Okay, it's true, but I followed her for different reasons!" she folded her arms before adding, "Anyway, why are you looking for her?"

"Because I read the poem she left me yesterday and I need to find her-" and then, he realized something, "Wait, you're looking for her as well, aren't you?"

"Yeah, Lucy wasn't in her bed, and she didn't even leave behind any clue as to where she went," Lynn explained, rubbing her shoulder and looking at the ground, "And I'm worried she might have left the house, where her frail little emo body can be taken advantage of by random strangers!"

Linc blinked twice, legitimately not knowing how to respond to that statement.

Lynn, realizing what she said, shook her head and soon added, "Do you want to team up so we can find Lucy faster?"

"Sure, but I have a question first," Linc then pointed at Lynn's arm sleeves and knee socks. "Why are you wearing Lucy's clothes?"

Lynn quickly shrugged off the question, "I'll answer later, for now, we got to find Lucy!"

Lincoln just nodded and followed Lynn downstairs, where they started to look around the house for any sign of their sister's whereabouts. Unfortunately, they failed to find anything that even vaguely resembled a clue, and they reunited with empty hands.

"Wait, maybe she's just around and we're ignoring her by accident!" Lynn guessed before shouting, "It's okay, Lucy, I'll pay you some attention! Sorry for ignoring you, it really wasn't my intention, honest!"

But she never came, and Lynn grew worried.

"L-Lucy, really, you can come out now, we're here for you! And if you find Lincoln too wimpy or whatever for your taste, then I'm here for you!"

"Hey!" Linc growled.

Same result.

With this in mind, Lynn bit her fingernails as she frantically looked for something to do...right before getting an idea and turning to Lincoln with a sly look. She then grabbed him, pulled him closer to her and kissed him in the lips for a good couple seconds, which only made the event more shocking and awkward in Linc's eyes.

Then, out of nowhere, Lucy kicked Lynn away and hissed "stay away from my brother, you freaky sports weirdo!" in an uncharacteristically hostile-but most importantly, emotional-tone. It didn't help that she clung to Lincoln's arm and whispered to his ear, "It's okay, Linc Linckety Split, your dear sister Lucy is here for you now."

"Um, cool?" Linc glanced at Lynn, who gave him a thumbs up with a dizzy smile. "Listen Lucy, I'm sorry for not paying attention to you yesterday, I was busy and-"

"I understand, Lincoln." Lucy replied. "But I want you to understand something."

"And what is that-?"

Suddenly, Lucy clung Linc's arm tightly as she bluntly told him, with goo goo eyes, "I love you."

The boy, quite understandably, flinched at the comment and tried to back away, only for Lucy to continue clinging to him. She then lifted the front part of her hair, revealing her eyes had turned into shield-like and blue. "Do you love me too?" she asked.

"...Please tell me you're kidding" Linc pleaded.

"Say you love me and I'll tell you!" Lucy stuck out her tongue and winked.

However, Linc simply looked around before fleeing the scene and going back to his room, leaving behind Lucy to vent out on Lynn. "You made him run away!" she hissed, sounding notably pissed.

As that happened, Linc quickly ran to Lisa and Lily's bedroom and slammed the door shut, which somehow failed to wake up Lily.

"Lisa, Lucy and Lynn have gone totally nuts! Maybe Lynn more than Lucy, but the two are nuts nonetheless!" Lincoln remarked, flailing his arms up and down wildly.

He immediately turned silent when he saw Lisa's hair was not only taller than her, but spiky. "What?" Lisa asked with a shrug.

"Nothing," he replied, scratching the back of his head as he explained, "After Lynn kissed me-long story-Lucy came out of nowhere, kicked her away, sung some weird song to me and then revealed her eyes had changed: they were shield-like and blue in color."

"And I think that change has something to do with this chip," Lisa revealed the blue chip Cristina installed in Lucy's helmet. "I found it in Lucy's VR helmet, which was releasing some unstable blue electricity around the room."

"Hence why you look like a brunette Frankenstein's Wife hair-wise?" Linc asked, folding his arms.

Lisa paused before flatly answering, "Precisely," and then she paused, looked around and pointed at her bed, "Lincoln, please sit down."

Not knowing what she wanted, Lincoln eyed the bed and then sat down as Lisa took a deep breath, placed the blue chip in the analyzer and then turned to Lincoln. Her eyes reflected light as she told him in a matter-of-fact tone, "There are some things you need to learn."

Meanwhile, at Luna and Luan's bedroom, the rock star slept like a baby in her bed, laying on one side of the bed as she slowly opened her eyes, expecting a normal morning.

However, the first thing she saw was Luan, who was currently on top of her. "Good morning, Lunatic!" Luan cheerfully greeted.

"Lunatic?" Luna repeated, right before realizing why Luan said that. "Oh, _Luna_ tic! Ohohoho, you sneaky little Punnywag!"

Luan blushed and gave Luna an "Oh, you!" hand wave before getting off her bed. "So, Luan, I need you to refresh my mind..." Luna paused and then eyed the VR game and system, which had not been removed for some reason. "For the rest of this week, we can't play the VR game, can we?"

Luan's smile slowly turned into a frown as she nodded. "I'm afraid so: it's what Mom's compromise said, and I really don't want to know what'll happen if we break the compromise," Luna shivered in agreement. "But hey, at least we still got each other, right?"

Luna gave Luan a nervous smile and nodded as the two held hands and left their bedroom. One morning routine and change of clothes later, the pair were walking downstairs when they saw Lynn and Lucy still fighting. They quickly separated and ran after; Luna stopped Lynn while Luan stopped Lucy, though Lucy acted like a wild rooster in order to break free.

"Quit it, Lucy! You know fighting all the time is Lola and Lana's deal!" Luan joked, though the emo's energetic spasms left her no time to laugh.

"Why are you fighting this time?" Luna asked, dusting off Lynn.

"Linc and I searched for Lucy, since I didn't see her in her room," Lynn blushed and looked at the ground as she added, "and then I...did something with Linc, she came out of nowhere, she scared him away-no surprise there-and then she attacked me!"

Luna narrowed her eyes. "What did you do with Lincoln?" she asked.

Lynn broke free of Luna's grasp, nervously whispered what she did to Luna and then ran away as the teenager processed it. The same thing happened with Lucy: she broke free of Luan's grasp, explained what happened to her and then bitterly went back upstairs as the comedian grabbed her cheek, "oh geez."

"Should we go after them?" Luna asked, pointing at the staircase.

"Hmm, no, we should let them deal with their troubles on their own," Luan wrapped her arm around Luna's shoulder. "That way, we won't end up making it worse by accident!"

The rock star gave the staircase an unsure look before they went to the adult table. Over there, they saw Lori and Leni-the latter with a stern frown and the former avoiding eye contact with anybody-sitting next to each other and eating sandwiches. On their opposites sides were two plates with sandwiches as well.

"Hi Lori and Leni!" Luan chirped as she and Luna sat down at the opposite of Leni and Lori. "Hey, not to place my nose where it doesn't need to be put, but for who are these sandwiches?"

"They're for you," Leni answered in a motherly tone.

Luna and Luan shared perplexed looks as they took a bite out of their sandwiches. "So, if you don't mind me asking, what's wrong?" Luna raised an eyebrow. "Lori's usually bossy, but she looks pretty nervous now."

Lori flinched for a moment before resuming her eye contact avoidance, notably shivering. "Yeah, and though you're always a nice girl, you seem more...stern than usual, Leni," Luan added.

"Lori has something to tell you," Leni gave Lori a stern glare. "Isn't that right, Lori?"

The teenager turned to Leni and meekly answered, "Y-Yes..."

"Well, can't you tell us what she wants to say, Leni?" Luan asked. "Lori doesn't seem to be in condition to tell us anything."

Leni shook her head. "No, this is something Lori has to tell you herself."

And the trio looked at Lori, who continued to avoid eye contact as her shivering grew more notable. And although Leni continued to look at the teenager, Luna and Luan soon finished their breakfast and got up, "Sorry girls, but we have things to do today," Luna hastily explained.

"And this is too awkward for our taste," Luan added.

So the pair bid farewell and left the house as Leni waved goodbye and Lori stopped shivering. Just as she caught her breath, however, Lori was spooked when an annoyed Leni uttered, "You refused to reveal the truth, yet again..." she slowly turned and saw Leni sneering at her. "You had the chance...and you didn't take it."

Lori shrunk. "I'm sorry, Leni, but-"

Without warning, Leni grabbed Lori's shoulders and asked, "What is wrong, Lori? What is bothering you so much that you don't tell your sisters the truth?" this made Lori look at the ground in contemplation, "Is it Bobby? Me? The game? Tell me, don't just leave me hanging!"

And Lori did just that: she looked away and left Leni hanging on why she was so worried. Angered by this, Leni got up, grabbed Lori's hand and dragged her out of the house.

"W-Where are we going?" Lori inquired.

Leni simply, sternly answered, "You'll see soon."

And back with Linc, he watched in shock as Lisa, hands clasped, told him the truth:

"As you have seen with your very own eyes, most of our sisters have gone through changes of personality, ranging from minor changes, to a complete overhaul. And while I can't tell you anything definitive, I can at least tell you that my best guess is that the chips inside the VR helmets are responsible for the change."

"Wait, what do you mean by most of our sisters?" Linc blurted.

Lisa reached for her desk and pulled out a chart showcasing how the sisters' personalities had changed overtime, except for Lucy of course. Surprisingly, Leni's line remained completely unchanged through the whole chart. "I have discovered that Leni has some sort of protective...I don't even know what to call it, but it seems she's immune to whatever changes the chips should have done to her."

Linc could only ask in bewilderment, "And why's that the case?"

"The analysis of the chips are not complete yet, but I have managed to gather enough information to make a theory about them," the little genius took out a picture of the average brainwave length of a human. "These are the brain waves of an average person, and the chips have been capable of changing our sister's personalities. Therefore, we can take for a fact that the chips affect people with normal brain waves."

Then she took out a picture of Leni's brainwave length...if you could even call it that. "However, Leni's brain waves are significantly weaker than the average human. What I'm trying to say is, since the chips were created to change normal and smart people, they have very little effect on someone as dumb as Leni-"

"Wait, shouldn't being less smart than average make Leni easier to change?" Linc pointed out.

"It's only a theory, Lincoln, just because I'm a genius doesn't mean everything I say is a hundred percent flawless," Lisa put the pictures away, got off her chair and sat next to Lincoln. "In addition, I tried to analyze the chip in your helmet, but the chip is completely useless and incapable of changing brainwaves. No doubt Cristina changed it while she had the chance-"

This caught Lincoln's attention. "Cristina was here?!" he grabbed Lisa's shoulders in a panic, "When?! How?! Why?!"

"Yesterday, through the chimney, and I have no idea." the smart girl answered as Lincoln released her. "All I know that she changed the chips the helmets originally had for upgraded versions of them, or in Lucy's case, what I believed is an unstable prototype."

Lincoln looked at the ground, trying to process all the information. "Have you told this to anybody else?" he inquired, rubbing his shoulder.

"Lori, but she "didn't have the heart" to tell the rest about it, and that's why I'm telling you about the chips." Lisa paused before grabbing Linc's hand with her own. "Lincoln, I want you to tell the rest of our sisters about the chips, and what they have done to them. Can you do what Lori failed to do?"

"...S-Sure."

And so, Lisa gave Lincoln a pleased smile and went back to the analyzer, who had 15% of the triple-chip-analysis done. "Just one question, why don't you tell them yourself?" Linc asked.

"Because I have to stay her and see what the analysis tells me about the chips." a couple seconds later, she added, "Besides, I know I can count on you to let the rest learn the truth."

Lincoln nodded and left the bedroom as Lisa's analyzer hit 16%... a couple minutes later. "I swear, the more chips I make this thing analyze, the slower it gets..."

Meanwhile, at the backyard, Lana made a couple of mud cakes while Lola watched from afar, arms folded behind her back. She took a quick look left and right to make sure nobody else was around, and then headed to Lana, who ignored her when she realized she was nearby.

"So, it's been a while since that...argument, we had yesterday," Lola said, briefly avoiding eye contact before adding, "And I have thought of a compromise: First, we'll experience what the other does. That means I'll play in the mud, while you perform in a make-believe pageant, does it sound good?"

This immediately caught Lana's attention, as proven when the twin turned around and gave Lola an absolutely baffled look. "I know that sounds weird, but it's the only thing I can think of." and then, the pageant girl hesitantly extended her hand towards her sister. "So, what do you say?"

Lana gave the hand a quick look, then narrowed her eyes before smiling and shaking the hand...only to promptly hold it and throw Lola into a mud puddle. "I think I'll do that, but after you and I enjoy the mud first," Lana answered before diving in.

The tomboy laughed out loud as Lola eyed her mud-covered gloves and dress. In any other situation, she would have freaked out, and maybe make Lana pay for what she did. But this time, she struck the med and splashed her twin sister, whose laughter was brought to a halt when some of the mud landed in her mouth. Exchanging smug grins, Lana spat out the mud back at Lola as she splashed some more mud against her, only to quickly turn into slap fight between the two with the occasional mud splash.

And then Lola, wanting to win the fight, tackled her sister and the two rolled around the yard as a wheel until they stopped at a tree, with Lola at the top and Lana at the bottom. Lana just laughed as Lola blushed and quickly got off.

"Admit it, you enjoyed it while it lasted," the tomboy remarked as she got up and dusted herself.

The pageant girl smiled and dusted herself as she hesitantly admitted, "Yeah...I guess you could say I had fun..." and then she gave her sister a smirk, "But now, it's your turn to do something I like!"

Lana swallowed her smugness, which was soon replaced by determination. "Bring it on!" she voiced.

 _At the streets of Royal Woods..._

Luan and Luna walked together through the streets, with Luan playing her kazoo and no doubt attracting the attention of the nearby citizens. "Luan, why didn't you tell me you were going to bring your kazoo to our d-" and then, she paused and looked around before quickly correcting herself: "Why did you tell me you were going to bring your kazoo?"

"I wanted to keep it a surprise, specially because the Star Cafe might not be what you're expecting." Luan blushed and saved her kazoo in her pockets. "After all, I want our first da-"

Luna quickly covered Luan's mouth and looked around, seeing dozens of citizens giving both she and her sister weird looks. She then dragged Luan to an alley and caught her breath as Luan frowned in worry.

"I can't believe I forgot about this, but we can't just act like we were lovers out in public!" Luna stated, making her sister raise an eyebrow. "It would cause quite a reaction, probably not unlike Clyde's parents. In fact, seeing as we're sisters, we'd probably end up creating an even bigger reaction than even them!"

Luan licked Luna's hand, and with the rock star releasing her mouth, she asked, "Does that mean we have to date in secret?"

Luna paused for a moment, thought about it, then silently nodded before leaving the alley with the comedian. And so, they continued to walk until they reached the "Star Cafe" and went inside: the interior looked like a mix between a restaurant and a convention, with the lighthearted atmosphere accompanied by the rock version of a surprisingly familiar tune.

Not only that, but among the people were teenagers either dressed as aliens or comedian-like figures alongside the normal people. Oh, and Cristina was among them.

"Wow, you really were right, this is not what I expected," however, it didn't take long for Luna to see that Luan had basically vanished, "Luan, where did you go?"

Not earning a response, Luna decided to sit down and watch the show as the lights darkened and the spotlight focused on the alien-comedian hybrid band playing the song. Their song was brought to a halt as they parted, allowing a fifth member to join. From the member's antenna and long brunette hair, Luna got a pretty good idea of who they could be.

 _"Luan?!"_ she thought in disbelief.

And then the figure took out their instrument: a kazoo. Yep, this was definitely Luan. And the disbelief didn't stop there, for Luan and the band did what was thought to be impossible: they combined the kazoo and hard rock in a familiar tune...and actually made it sound good! Proud in the most baffled way possible, Luna smiled and gently clapped as the rest of the cafe roared in excitement.

After a couple of minutes had passed, the new member vanished and not too long afterwards, Luan returned and sat next to Luna. "I saw you play with the band, I got to say, you left me impressed," Luna gently hit Luan's shoulder and chuckled, "Impressed and proud, to be exact."

Luan blushed as a waitress served the duo a pair of drinks. "These were ordered for you by a friendly redhead," she explained.

The thanked the lady and grabbed their drinks as she left. "So, do you like this place?" Luan inquired.

"Yeah, it's a pretty nice cafe." Luna answered. "Awesome, and entertaining."

And as Luna drank her drink, Luan's smile turned into a smug-almost malicious-smirk as she knowingly asked, "So, should we have our date here?"

This caused the rock star to spit out her drink, all while Luan laughed like a hyena and slapped her knees. "Hahaha! Now we're even!" she stated, following it with a serious tone, "But seriously, do we have that here?"

"S-Sure..." Luna coughed a little and gasped for air. "Just please, don't give me any heart attacks until then."

Luan giggled and helped her sister catch her breath as Cristina watched from afar, with a smile of approval.

Meanwhile, back at the Loud House, the frantic fighting between Lynn and Lucy had been finished, with both girls taking the time to catch their breath. More specifically, Lynn leaned against a wall with her arms folded while Lucy was cleaning...something. However, judging by the amount of bruises they had-and how some of Lynn's bruises were bleeding-it's amazing they weren't crying their hearts out.

 _"Great, as if my feels weren't hard enough to deal with,"_ Lynn thought, narrowing her eyes bitterly. _"How am I supposed to get her attention if she's solely going to focus on Lincoln?"_

And then she got an idea...which she immediately scrapped. _"No, I would never do that to Lincoln!"_ she vehemently proclaimed in her mind. _"Even if Lincoln is technically an obstacle, he doesn't deserve...that..."_

Lynn looked at Lucy, who continued cleaning her...thing. _"But the only other thing I can think of is..."_

Realizing her Plan B was the only option she had left, Lynn clasped her hands, swallowed her fears and went closer to Lucy, who seemingly didn't notice her. "Listen Lucy, there's something I've been meaning to tell you-"

"You love Lincoln, don't you?" Lucy uttered while cleaning something. "We all do, but I'm special among us all, because my love for him is superior than the rest."

Lynn backed away a little. "E-Excuse me?"

"Oh please, don't tell me you're not thinking about turning this into a competition of sorts?" Lucy eyed the thing she was cleaning before adding, "That's what you always do."

Feeling flattered, Lynn gently smacked herself in the head and sheepishly admitted, "Guilty of the charge!"

Then, without warning, Lucy flashed a smile before revealing and aiming a knife straight for Lynn, who immediately backed into a wall as Lucy sternly stated, "Now listen up, no matter what you say, or what anybody else says, I love Lincoln more than anybody else and he and I will be together."

To make matters worse, she went closer to Lynn until she could feel the knife poking her nose. "That means you can be friendly with him, but never in a romantic way, that is _my_ deal. Got it?"

Lynn swallowed her fears once more and answered, "W-Why would I want to act in a romantic manner with Lincoln? A-After all, I-"

"Precisely," Lucy muttered.

And with that said, the emo left the room as Lynn slid onto the floor, clutching her heart and gasping for air.

 _At the Royal Woods Mall..._

Lori and Leni-the latter still tightly grabbing the former's hand-looked around until Leni spotted the person she was looking for: Bobby Santiago. "Okay, there he is," Leni turned to Lori and put her hands on her shoulders, "Now this is what you'll do: you'll go to Bobby and, got it?"

"B-But, I don't-" Lori stuttered.

"Listen, either you get your worries out of your chest this instant, or you let them eat you alive!" Leni growled. "And I won't let my sister's worries eat her, so tell him what's bothering you!"

And so, with a gentle push from Leni, Lori walked to Bobby and the duo talked with each other as Leni sat down on a bench nearby and watched. For the most part, the conversation went well: the duo laughed a couple times, neither of them showed hostility to the other, and by the time they finished they shared a hug before parting ways.

Lori reunited with Leni, who got up and grabbed her hand before the two left the mall. "So, how do you feel?" Leni asked.

"Better," was all Lori said in response.

With the duo outside, Leni eventually stopped-shortly followed by Lori-and then turned to her relieved sister. "Okay, normally I wouldn't try to get deeper, but I'm curious: what did you tell Bobby? What happened between you two?"

The pair's hair blew in the wind as Lori looked at the ground before starting with a pleased, "He understood."

As she continued, Leni's curiosity turned into satisfaction and Lori clasped her hands and gave her sister a look full of hope and awe. "I told him that I might be growing feelings for somebody else...a girl...and he told me that it was okay, that he was happy if I was happy with her."

"Oh, nice!" Leni remarked, with her curiosity soon catching up to her, "And who is this lucky girl?"

Lori simply blushed and walked to Leni, giving her a big hug once she was close enough. Though surprised at first, Leni was quick to return the hug...and was then even more surprised when she felt Lori gently caress her hair, followed by the hug tightening at her will. Not only that, but Lori soon moved her hand down to Leni's back, where she gently felt it as Leni felt a shiver up her spine.

"O-Okay, Lori, you're making this kind of awkward," Leni pushed Lori back a bit, though the teenager didn't seem to be bothered that much. "Just tell me who is this girl you like!"

With the wind blowing even harder, Lori leaned towards Leni's ear and whispered "It's you" before giving her sister a kiss in the lips. A kiss that lasted just long enough to catch the attention of the nearby citizens, and let Lori and Leni's tongue clash and play with each other.

Once the teenagers finished kissing, Leni could only tell herself in her mind as Lori hugged her once more. _"No way..."_


	8. Revelations

Lincoln headed to the backyard as he processed all the information Lisa told him, and consequently, grew worried about his sisters. "Okay, Linc, you just have to see if any of your sisters are home before you message the rest." he grew hopeful as he opened the door to the backyard. "Who knows? Maybe some of them won't be as affected as the others?"

However, the first thing he saw once he reached the yard was Lana blushing and looking away as Lola tried to take off her dirty overalls. "Lola, stop it!" she whined, trying to push her twins away, "Just put the dress over my overalls!"

"No, you definitely need to get these off!" Lola stated, giving Lana an angry, dominant glare. "Just because we're starting to like each other doesn't mean I'm going to allow you to ruin one of my dresses!"

And then Lincoln coughed, catching the twins attention. The yard was filled with nothing but silence as the twins and Lincoln exchanged shocked and embarrassed looks.

"Um, do you know if any of our sisters outside of you, Lisa and Lily are here?" Linc asked, quickly looking away.

"I-I think Lynn and Lucy are still here," Lana answered.

"Thanks," before Linc left, he added. "Oh, by the way, I have to tell all of you something, so if you could come to the living room, that would be great. I'll message the rest as well."

And so, the boy went back inside and the twins blushed even harder. "We should've picked a more private place to do this," Lana remarked, with Lola begrudgingly nodding in agreement.

At the kitchen, Lincoln saw another one of his sisters: Lucy, who was looking at the knife collection. "Lucy?" Linc blurted.

This immediately caught Lucy's attention, and she saved the knife in her pocket before strolling to her brother.

"Lincoln! I'm so happy to see you!" Lucy chirped, unknowingly scaring Lincoln more than she ever did back in her normal state. "What does my dear brother need from me today?"

"Lucy, there's something I need to tell everybody, and I need you and Lynn at the living room," Linc explained.

And soon enough, Lynn arrived. "Did somebody call me?" she asked, scratching the back of her head.

The instant she recognized the voice, Lucy took out her knife, aimed it at Lynn and hissed, "Stay away!" with a murderous look in her face.

"Okay, hold it, nobody needs to get hurt!" Linc got in between the girls. "What I need to say is very important, so please, whatever your deal is, put it at the sidelines until I've told you everything!"

And so, Lucy agreed and put the knife on the collection as Lynn jokingly jabbed Linc's shoulder, "You should learn a thing or two from Lincoln, Lucy! He knows how to deal with it!"

Lucy went all "hissss" at Lynn's face, only holding back when she saw Lincoln giving her an angry look with his arms folded. After a couple seconds, the emo finished her sentence with "Fine!" and stomped her way to the living room.

"Lynn, please take this seriously," Linc sternly requested. "Lucy's not exactly stable, why will be explained later, but for now just go to the living room and don't anger Lucy."

Lynn smiled, nodded and left as Lincoln wrote a simple message: "Come home, important news," which he then sent to his remaining sisters.

The first remaining pair to get the message were Luna and Luan, who were looking at each other with hearts in their eyes, when in that moment their phones rang. They took them out and read the message to themselves.

"Well, I guess we got to go home," Luna remarked as she and Luan, the latter looking a bit worried, got up and left the establishment. "What is it, Luan?"

"Do you think Linc or Lisa found out something about us?" the comedian asked.

Luna, unable to think of an answer, grabbed Luan's hand and reassured her that they "we're going to be okay," which sadly didn't mitigate Luan's worries that much.

The remaining pair, Lori and Leni, had the latter get the message while sitting at a bench with the infatuated Lori. "Hey, Linc sent me a message," then she read it to herself. "Oh gosh, we got to go!"

Leni grabbed Lori's hand and dragged her as she ran back home, with the teenager simply saying "O-Okay..." in the most flustered tone possible.

A tone which Leni could use without. "I really hope you return to normal soon enough," she confessed. "I liked you better when you were bossy and all that."

Lori scratched her chin in contemplation.

And so, a couple minutes later, the sisters reached the house and sat in the couch with Lynn, Lucy, Lola and Lana. Lisa and Lincoln stood at the sides of a blackboard, ready to explain everything.

"Now, we apologize for interrupting your businesses, but Lincoln and I have things to tell you," Lisa stated. "Linc, would you mind summarizing?"

Lincoln took out a couple of the chips as he said, "The VR helmets we used to play the game had chips that change the personality of the helmet users. Not only that, but apparently Cristina came here and replaced our chips with upgraded versions!"

All the sisters' eyes widened in shock.

"However these only work if the person has average intelligence," Linc quickly added, easing his sister's worries... somewhat. "Among the ones who weren't affected are me, since my chip was defective, Lisa, apparently because she didn't play the game, and Leni, since she's not smart enough."

"I don't know what you mean, but I think what you're saying's a good thing!" Leni said. "But wait, how are we supposed to deal with them?"

"That's what I've been trying to figure out: I hooked some of the chips to an analyzer to try and see if they have any weakness, but it's taking forever to complete," and then Lisa drew in the blackboard a drawing of Cristina. "So, I believe we should try stop this girl from delivering more of the helmets, if that is what she's doing."

"Now that you mention it, I saw her giving out some upgraded helmets to some kids, including Clyde, back at the school," Linc added. "But when I tried to figure out what she was doing, she vanished."

"That decides it then!" Lori stated, getting up and placing her hands in her hips. "While some of us try and catch Cristina to prevent her from spreading the chips, one of us will go to Clyde's house, get his upgraded helmet and dismantle it in order to find out their inner mechanisms!"

Leni clapped wildly. "Yay! That's the Lori I know and love!"

The teenager got a goofy smile as her face turned completely red and she sat back down. "While I agree with your idea, Lori, we need to find something with her DNA first," Lisa responded. "Skin, eyelashes, hair-"

Suddenly, a rock crashed through the window and landed next to Lincoln. He took the rock and, Alongside a note, he noticed there was a small lock of hair tied to the rock.

"Hey, Lame-O, got something for you, XOXO Ronnie Anne," Linc read out loud as he took out the red hair from the rock.

"Oh man, Linc, looks like Ronnie confused you for someone named Lame-O," Leni remarked in sympathy. "But now that I say it, who names their kid Lame-O? It's like naming a girl with a guy name, like Lennie!"

The Louds gave Leni exasperated looks, except for Lori, who just giggled.

"I'll see if this is Cristina's hair," Lisa took the hair and went upstairs. "If it isn't, we'll just have to try find another way to get her DNA."

And so, with the explanations over, the sisters left the living room as Lincoln wrote a reply and threw the rock back outside, where Ronnie effortlessly caught it. As she walked back home, the girl took out the reply and read it to herself. It basically consisted of:

"Thanks, Ronnie! XOXO, Lincoln."

If only the girl was actually happy for the thanks.

Nevertheless, once she reached her house, she went inside and sat on the couch with her. "Oh hey, you're back," Bobby said as he brushed her hair. "I'm glad, your friend and I were starting to grow worried."

Ronnie just gave her brother a silent smile as the "friend" he was talking about arrived and sat next to her. This friend was, of course, Cristina, who gestured Ronnie's brother to leave them alone, with Ronnie giving him an "it's okay" look to make him go away.

Once he left, Ronnie and Cristina exchanged looks: Ronnie's look was filled with anger while Cristina's was full of smug condescendence. "I did what you told me to do," Ronnie bitterly informed. "Now what?"

Cristina's smile turned into a smirk as she revealed a pamphlet to Aloha Beach.

 _Back at the Loud House..._

With the hair being analyzed by Lincoln and Lisa, most of the Louds decided to take the time to rest and and process the information the pair gave them.

The most notably affected by the news were Luan and Luna, who were resting on their room. However, while Luan mostly tried to think of a joke that could lighten the mood, Luna played her acoustic guitar in a somber tone.

And of course, it soon caught Luan's attention. "Luna, I know what Lincoln told us makes it...questionable, if what we had was even real, or if what we were doing had an excuse, or-"

The angry glare she got from the rock girl made Luan realize she should get straight to the point. "What I'm trying to say is, if you're so bothered by that information, I can entertain you if you want. After all, I'm a professional entertainer!"

"Luan, cut it out," Luna responded, not even turning to look at the comedian. It was clear in her tone she simply wasn't in a good mood. "Our love wasn't real, you don't have to try and cheer me up. I can deal with that fact just fine."

This failed to convince the comedian. "You don't look like you're dealing with it well."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked, though her tone made it clear she didn't want an answer.

Even when she could clearly see the rock girl was not in the mood to talk, Luan folded her arms and pressed on.

"You're playing your guitar in a somber tone, and you never do that unless you're upset." Luna stopped playing her guitar altogether...and also started to ignore Luan. "And now you won't even acknowledge that I'm talking with you?"

Luna just kept ignoring her.

This drove the girl to speak in a familiar accent, "I took thou to a cafe in order to make sure thou'd be chuffed. thou saw me play, and told me thou were not only impressed, but proud. All that happened, a little whilst ago."

Regardless of whether the accent was good or not, it certainly caught Luna's attention. "And now, after we learnt the truth about those helmets, thou don't dae summat fancy try to lighten the mood or summat. No! thou decide to turn into a Lucy copycat and turn all gloomy and sad and stuff!"

"Since when do you know how to do a British accent?" Luna questioned defensively.

Luan crossed her arms. "I don't know, since when do you think this is something Mick Swagger would've wanted you to do?"

Luna was legitimately left speechless by the statement, though she soon grew hostile as Luan continued to talk.

"Listen, we may not be in love with each other like we thought, but that doesn't mean you can just act like you can deal with it when you clearly can't!" Luan extended her hand to Luna, who gave it an unsure look. "So please, just let me try to-"

And then, Luna slapped Luan in the cheek with her guitar so hard, she left behind a red hand print. Surprisingly enough, though, the guitar was perfectly fine. Then, as Luan grabbed her sleep cheek and processed what just happened, Luna clutched her guitar defensively.

"Luan, quit acting like this!" the rock girl demanded, shedding a couple tears. "Wanting to make me happy again is one thing, but doing so by trying to make me deal with something we never even had in the first place is another thing altogether!"

And then Luan herself shed a couple tears as Luna continued.

"What we felt was a trick played by the chips! We thought we had something between us, when there is nothing but an imaginary string forcing us together by the will of contrived devices! Do you understand?!" Luan turned to Luna as the rock girl's tone turned somber. "We're not in love...we're not...so why...why can't I deal with it...and how can you take it so well?!"

"...I'm...not taking it well, not at all," the comedian confessed as she got back up and dusted herself. "Do you know what I do when I try to take something heavy or bad well? I make jokes. I pull pranks. I generally try to put on a funny face to hide what I really feel."

The comedian looked at the ground as Luna released her guitar and gave her a sympathetic look.

"I sometimes do the same with my siblings: if I'm not pulling pranks or makes jokes at them for the giggles, I'm doing it to try hide the sadness, gloom, or whatever I want to hide at the moment... After all, if you were to ask me, I'd rather hide everything behind a bunch of fake laughter than come out clean about it."

Luna was left baffled, to say the least. "But, we're not in love-"

"Whether I'm in love with you or not, that doesn't matter! I simply can't stand the sight of a sad sister of mine, younger or older!" Luan proclaimed, right before taking out what was basically her entire comedy arsenal out of nowhere. "So, regardless of our feelings, and regardless of what you think, I will try to make you happy again! now tell me what makes you happy and, even if the only thing I get from you is a faint smile, I'll do it!"

Luna, surprised at her sister's determination, chuckled before getting up and walking closer to Luan, "Well, that won't be necessary," which admittedly made Luan internally panic.

However, it wasn't long before Luna clarified what she said as she grabbed Luan's cheek, with goo goo eyes and all: "Because you make me happy, Luan!"

The comedian blushed and she dropped her arsenal, in absolute shock. "Are you..." Luan swallowed her fears and asked, "Are you being honest?"

Luna silently nodded.

Next in the line of thought were Lola and Lana, who walked back and forth in their bedroom with their arms folded behind their backs. Outside of the occasional glance, the pair didn't really pay attention to the other. That is, until Lana stopped and got an idea.

"Wait, I just realized something," she said, catching her twin's attention. "if the chips are the reason behind the lovey dovey nonsense stuff, then that means we're not in love with each other, right?"

"Yeah, that's basically what it means, and I'd be happy if you didn't bring that up anymore!" Lola hissed, growing cautious as Lana flashed a smile. "What are you implying?"

"Well, if we're not in love with each other, then we should take this chance to join forces with Lincoln and Lisa!" Lola just tilted her head, confused. "Think about it: we, like them, are not forcefully in love with somebody else thanks to the chips. So why don't we join forces with them to make sure nothing bad happens?"

"Hmm..." Lola scratched her chin and smiled. "I guess I can see where you're coming from, but there's one problem: how will we convince them to let us help them?"

Lana gave her twin a smug, slightly amused smirk. "Lola, miss "unbelievably impossible to reject," is asking me how to convince Linc and Lisa to let us help in their quest..." a short chuckle later, Lana sneered, "Do I need to explain it to you some more?"

Lola shook her head just as Lana, without hinting at anything, gave her twin a kiss in the lips. "That's what you get for trying to force me out of my overalls!" she laughed as she left the room, leaving a puzzled-yet nonetheless irritated-Lola behind.

And for third place were Leni and Lori, the latter who was busy explaining the whole situation to Bobby through her phone, while the former was trying to decide whether to reciprocate Lori's feelings or not.

"Okay, so from what I can gather, if I had feelings for Lori they would be the genuine deal and not some sort of fabricated thingamajig," she thought. "However, even after what she told me, I'm not sure if I should go along with his thing..."

As Leni started, she was snapped back to reality by Lori. "Oh hi, what do you need?" Leni greeted.

"Bobby made a reservation for our whole family at Aloha Beach by the request of his sister's friend," Lori explained with joy, seemingly oblivious to Leni's shock. "So, the reservation is for the weekend, and I thought we could all go there-primarily the two of us-and enjoy some time together."

Instead of being overjoyed at the statement. "Did you seriously tell him you were dating me without consulting my opinion first?!"

"Well, it wasn't something I decided on the spot: Bobby figured that since you were the girl I was talking about, that we were so dating, so I caved in and lied saying that we really were dating," Lori sheepishly explained. "But hey, we at least got an Aloha Beach reservation out of it!"

"Now that you mention it, isn't Aloha Beach a...beach?" Leni scratched her head. "How did he make a reservation for a beach of all things?"

"Well, he actually made a reservation on a resort next to the beach," Lori placed her hand in Leni's shoulder. "Again, point is, we have a reservation for a whole weekend at a resort next to Aloha Beach!"

"We must tell the rest of the family!" Leni exclaimed in growing excitement, followed by grabbing Lori's hand and dragging her out of the room.

And while that happened, Linc and Lisa watched the two analysis happening, with he hair analysis being at 80% while the chip analysis was at 30%.

"So, this is what you've been doing for a while now?" Linc asked, clearly bored. "Look at these analysis, hoping they'll just end up completed at random?"

"Yeah, fascinating, am I right?" the little sassball replied. "I'm sorry I had to drag you into this, but I'm feeling...comfortable around you."

"...Lisa, are you sure you were not affected by the chips?" Linc inquired, growing slightly worried.

"I'm a hundred percent sure that simply putting on the helmet isn't going to change my personality, Lincoln," Lisa said defensively. "Besides, I'm being honest: you bring with you a certain air of...security, commodity even. I'm enjoying this atmosphere, which is something I needed after spending so much time alone."

Linc just brushed Lisa's hair before continuing to look at the analysis. Miraculously, the hair analysis wound up being completed at that very moment, allowing it to unveil the results as Linc and Lisa watched in relief.

"Okay, so according to this, Cristina is currently located at Aloha Beach," Lisa read out loud, causing Linc no short amount of confusion. "That means we only need an excuse to go there and we'll be able to further out investigation!"

Linc was quick to point a hole in Lisa's plan. "Only one problem: how are we supposed to convince mom and dad to let us go there?"

And then Lori, alongside the rest of the Loud siblings, barged in exclaimed, "We're going to Aloha Beach!" as the sisters rejoiced.

"What do you mean?" Linc and Lisa asked in unison, causing Lucy to twitch.

"Bobby made our family a reservation for a resort next to Aloha Beach!" Lori explained with joy. "A place in the weekend to relax, enjoy some time together-"

"And just what we needed as well!" Lisa exclaimed before revealing the results to her siblings. "'Cause that's where we need to go next!"

Relieved that it seemed like their mission was going well, Lincoln and Lori-after some pushing from Leni and restraining Lucy by Lynn-shared a high-five. But soon enough, they found another hole, which was pointed out by Lincoln, "Wait, what about the upgraded helmet Clyde has?"

"I know how to deal with that," Lisa turned to Lori and said, "Lori, call the McBride residence and convince Clyde to lend us his VR helmet!"

"You're not my boss!" the teenager vehemently proclaimed, crossing her arms.

"Lori, darling, can you do us that favor?" Leni said.

Lori's face turned red and she felt a shiver up her spine as she put on a goofy smile, her eyes turned into swirls and she nodded as she marked the number in her phone. Once Clyde answered, he greeted with, "Hello, this is the McBrides."

"Clyde, it's Loud, Lori Loud," the teen replied. "I need your VR helmet, do you mind bringing it to our house?"

"A-A-Absolutely! I'll be there in a minute!" Clyde answered.

More like a second, taking into account the fact someone knocked the door the instant the call finished. And what a surprise, the person the family saw outside was Clyde, with his upgraded VR helmet at hand.

"Here you go!" Clyde handed Lincoln and was then approached by Lori and Leni. "If you don't mind me asking, why do you need my VR helmet?"

"Stuff," Lisa answered. "Don't worry, you'll get it back eventually."

"Now, Lori, thank Clyde the way I told you to," Leni said to her sister.

Lori reluctantly nodded, then crouched to Clyde's height, wherein she gave him a kiss in the cheek. The resulting hormone overload caused Clyde to leave the household like a robot, with Lori spitting out and cleaning her tongue in disgust.

"Don't worry, she's going to be fine," Leni reassured with a smile.

"Okay, we got the upgraded helmet and we got a clue to where Cristina is at," Linc recapped. "If we keep the steady pace, we'll figure out what's going in no time!"

Linc raised his fist in the air and said "Let's get Loud!" in excitement, with most of his sister joining with equal enthusiasm, while others were slightly embarrassed.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"So this is the resort Bobby reserved for us?" Leni questioned, scratching her chin before clasping her hands. "It's looks really good!"_

 _"I'll m-make sure to thank Bobby about making a reservation later," and then the parents finished verifying the reservation and whistled for their daughters-and Lincoln-attention. "For now, let's see how it looks from the inside."_

 _And so the Louds headed for their room...which was at the penultimate floor. Once there, they all went inside and were amazed by what they saw: A large TV located in the ceiling, surrounded by a couple couches and with an easily accessible kitchen. not to mention the large windows showcasing the beautiful sunset in the scenery, with purple curtains to block it out if necessary._

 _"This place is amazing!" most of the Louds exclaimed in joy._


	9. Beach Town Woes

A couple days later, it was now friday at Royal Woods, Michigan, and the Louds were pretty excited for their upcoming weekend at the Aloha Beach resort. Among these were Lincoln, who went through his average morning routine while the bathroom was empty. In a family of 11, he had to take whatever chance to use the bathroom when it was empty, and this was that time.

In fact, the hallways were surprisingly quiet. Almost as if most of his sisters were busy inside their rooms...hmm...

But nevertheless, he finished with his morning routine and immediately went to Lisa and Lily's bedroom to see the genius's progress in dismantling the VR helmet. To his surprise, he managed to hear Lisa talking with Leni inside, so he leaned closer and overheard the conversation.

"Lisa, you know you should be using your brain for, like, something that could help everybody," Leni said. "Something like-"

"Leni, I already told you I'm not wasting my time focusing on that stuff," Lisa replied. "Now please leave me alone, this coversation is over, and I want to rest."

With that said and done, Leni kicked the door open and stomped back to her and Lori's bedroom, showing a surprisingly grumpy mood. But nevertheless, Lincoln recovered and went inside.

Lisa was relaxing on her bed, with the chip analysis at 54% and the dismantled helmet in her desk...but with no chip in sight.

"Hi Lisa," Linc greeted, and Lisa cheerfully returned the gesture. But her smile seemed...like it was in pain. "So, I see you dismantled the helmet. Found anything interesting?"

"Well, I did manage to learn a significant life lesson," Lisa revealed her hands, which were wrapped from tip of finger to wrist in bandages. "Dismantling a VR helmet with your bare hands is harder than it looks."

Linc went to his sister's side and checked her hands as he asked, "Then how did you manage to dismantle it?"

"I got Lynn to help me, in exchange for a body pillow of Lucy."

As she said that, Lynn hugged her Lucy body pillow while the girl herself gave her a stunned look.

Back with Lisa and Lincoln, the guy was quick to ask an important question, "Wait... why did you have a body pillow of Lucy?"

"Why don't you have a body pillow of Ronnie Anne?" Lisa retorted.

A long silence passed until Lisa spoke again. "Anyhow, I managed to find something else about these helmets: they lack chips."

"It... lacks a chip?" Linc repeated, slightly relieved. "So, it's not going to change somebody if they use it?"

"See? This is why you fail at jumping class, you prefer to jump into conclusions instead!" Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose and then brought Linc closer to the helmet's inner mechanisms, which resembled glowing lines. "See these glowing lines? They are replacements to the chips!"

Linc's relief instantly turned into worry. "W-What do you mean?"

"I believe Cristina had foreseen the chips would end up being easy to deal with, so the helmet has created a highly resistant web of interconnected technological lines that will do the chips job, but with two major advantages: their endurance is highly improved from the chips, and as I've show you before, they're not nearly as easy to break apart."

With that in mind, Linc grabbed the remaining bits of the helmet and immediately threw them to the trash before sitting next to Lisa. "Of all the people that Cristina could've given this thing, why did she have to pick Clyde?" he lamented.

"It's okay, Lincoln, you've done your friend a favor," Lisa put her hand in her brother's shoulder as she gave him a reassuring smile. "For now, there's nothing else we can do. I failed to find anything else of importance, and the analysis sure isn't going to finish anytime soon, so all we can do right now is enjoy the time we have before we head off to the Aloha Beach resort."

Linc nodded in agreement, though with a slight hint of disappointment. And just as the guy looked at the ground with wonder, a familiar duo appeared: Lana and Lola. _"Oh geez, not these two,"_ Lisa mentally said.

"Get ready for trouble!" Lola proclaimed.

"We'll make it double!" Lana added.

"Coming to bring assistance!"

"And take down all resistance!"

"To help accomplish the mission!"

"And defeat all known opposition!"

Lola placed her hand behind her head and struck a pose. "Lola!"

Lana just cracked her knuckles as thunder roared. "Lana!"

"Team Twinfriends is ready for action!" the duo said in unison. "Let us join your team, or prepare for our reaction!"

What ensued was a bunch of silence as Linc and Lisa gave the duo bewildered looks, while Lily laughed and clapped wildly. The twins, however, were seemingly disatisfied with the end result. "See? I told you we should have practiced some more!" Lola whined.

"Hey, you're the one who decided to waste time practicing this routine instead of asking Lisa and Lincoln right away!" Lana growled in return.

"Would you just tell us what you want already?" Lincoln suggested, with an exasperated Lisa nodding in approval. "We're not exactly in a good mood."

Catching the twins' attention, the duo exchanged looks, nodded and then gave their reason: "We want to help you deal with the love-chip-nonsense-stuff!"

"Love-chip-nonsense-stuff..." Lisa adjusted her glasses. "You mean the chips inside the helmets?"

"Yeah, we figured that since we probably don't have feelings for each other-" Lana started.

"Because we didn't manage to reach a point in the game where the chips would warp our minds-" Lola interrupted.

"We could be of use to you in your mission to do...whatever you're planning to do!" Lana finished, giving her twin an angry look.

"You said _probably_ ," Lisa pointed out. "Are you sure you know you don't have feelings or even a crush on each other?"

The twins' ensuing blank, stunned looks was all the response they needed. "Well, crush or not, we could use some help," Linc said, scratching the back of his head. "So, as long as you can keep your stuff on check, I guess we can use you as undercover agents of sorts."

"Good idea, Lincoln," Lisa lightly jabbed Linc's shoulder, though he didn't even same to notice. "You two will reunite with the affected girls, and send us reports about the progress of their changes: how much they've changed, and how weird they are compared to their original selves."

The twins did the "yes sir!" gesture and said "You can count on us!" in unison. They then promptly left to do their work...and then Lana returned. "How do we tell you when we have a status report?"

Lisa took out a pair of walkie-talkies and handed them to the tomboy, who said "Thanks!" before leaving again. And then somebody knocked the door, making Lincoln go downstairs and open the door...to see Ronnie Anne outside.

"Oh, hi Ronnie," Linc said. "I'm surprised you came."

"Uh huh, just who I wanted to see!" Lisa said as she appeared out of nowhere and started to measure the girl. "Stay still for a couple minutes while I get your measurements for a body pillow after you."

Ronnie was understandably confused. "It's a long story," Linc explained.

"And one I'm not interested in hearing," Ronnie added. "Listen, I heard you were going to an Aloha Beach resort for the weekend, right?"

"Yeah, according to Lori, your brother made a reservation there for us for a weekend," Linc replied. "So, we'll be gone until sunday."

"...Be careful, Lame-O," Ronnie frowned. "You may not believe me, but that resort may end up being more chaotic than you think."

"Ronnie, we're the Louds, everywhere we go ends up being chaotic no matter what happens!" Linc jokingly proclaimed, which did nothing to ease Ronnie's worries. "But I'll be careful, I promise."

At that moment, Lisa finished Ronnie's measurements as the trio heard a faint voice shout "Mine!" repeatedly, which sounded louder and louder as more time passed. Eventually, Ronnie moved out of the way just as Lucy appeared out of nowhere and struck the ground with her knife.

"Mine!" Lucy hissed, giving Ronnie a furious stare.

"What's wrong with her?" Ronnie asked, though she soon got an idea from the shape of her eyes. "Okay, I'll leave, but don't hurt Lincoln."

Lucy released her knife and nodded in agreement. Ronnie gave Linc a wink and then promptly ran away, though surprisingly Lucy didn't give chase. She instead went to Lincoln and hugged him tightly. "It's okay, Linky Winky, I'm here for you now."

Linc was not amused.

 _Back with the twins..._

The pair exchanged smiles and thumbs up before heading to two rooms: Lana headed to Lori and Leni's room, while Lola headed for Luan and Luna's.

What Lana wound up seeing was Leni and Lori, peacefully sleeping together in one bed, with Lori in particular embracing a blushing Leni in a hug. "Okay, they're asleep," the mud lover thought in relief. "I must take this chance to find a good hiding spot."

The instant the tomboy tried to hide, however, she instantly felt the atmosphere turn hostile and threatening. A quick look at the duo revealed why the sudden change: Lori was partially awake, and giving Lana a wrathful glare.

Lori didn't even need to say anything to get Lana out, the look on her face gave Lana a clear idea of what she wanted her to do: Leave the room, or pay the consequences.

So the tomboy quickly left and decided to switch to Lucy and Lynn. Whatever kind of deal they had going, at least she would not have to endure a similar glare. Hopefully.

Unfortunately, what she felt when she entered their room ranged from unnerving to downright disturbing: from Lynn's side, she could feel the vibe of a hopeless romance desperately trying to cling onto whatever imaginary hope they had, and on Lucy's side, she felt the vibe of obssession, reaching even murderous-heights.

 _"Great, this is so much better than Lori and Leni,"_ the tomboy thought as she headed for Lynn, who was hugging her Lucy body pillow. "Hi, if you don't mind me interrupting you, why do you have a body pillow of Lucy?"

Lynn gave Lana a quick look before tightly hugging her body pillow, in a way reminiscing of desperately clinging to someone. "It's the closest thing I have, since the real deal doesn't want to come close to me," the duo then eyed Lucy, who was busy drawing something next to the window. "She only focuses on... the guy with white hair..."

"You mean Lincoln?" Lana asked out loud.

Lynn quickly covered the tomboy's mouth and Lucy soon turned to them with a stern, threatening stare. However, after a couple of seconds, she went back to her drawings. "Don't just say his name out loud!" Lynn scolded, releasing the tomboy. "She's obsessed with him... just like how I'm obsessed with her..."

"Why don't you just "fall in love" with somebody else?" Lana said with air quotes.

"Huh, if only it was that easy..." Lynn sadly remarked. "You can't just forget someone like Lucy and fall in love with someone else... unless..."

Not long afterwards, the sports fan turned to Lana and gave her a curious look. She then released her pillow, went closer to her side and grabbed her hands while she leaned her face closer to hers, with Lana notably blushing all the way. Just as they met face-to-face, however, Lynn released the girl and went back to her body pillow.

"No, it wouldn't work," she said in defeat. "Just... leave us alone, okay? Oh, and... sorry for what I did."

Feeling sympathetic to her older sister, Lana told her, "You know, if I were to take someone to go on a date or eventually fall in love with, I'd probably pick you," before storming out of the bedroom. Lynn just chuckled in amusement, "Silly kid."

 _Meanwhile, with Lola..._

The pageant princess hid behind the only decent hiding spot in Luan and Luna's bedroom: around the duo's bed, where Luna was checking up on Luan. Even with the obvious danger, the girl had no choice but to hide there, and also listen to what the duo were saying.

"Okay, Luan, does this hurt?"

Judging by the tone, Lola deduced that was Luna's voice. Unfortunately, it was soon followed by a howl of pain.

"Yeah, it "curts" a lot."

The groan-inducing pun was all Lola needed to know it was Luan who was talking. Surprisingly enough, though, it wasn't followed by Luan's characteristic laughter, which made the girl wonder... she took a peek out of her hiding spot and saw Luan, still with the red guitar injury Luna gave her, though it was more faint than before.

"I don't get it, it's been a couple days since I hit you," Luna pondered as she wrapped the a bandage patch around Luan's injury. It didn't completely cover it, but it was still better than nothing. "Why hasn't that injury healed yet?"

"Who knows, maybe..." Luan was soon left speechless as she failed to think of a pun, good or bad, to respond with. "I can't even think of a pun for this. I can always think of puns in any other situation, so-"

"Hey, don't beat yourself up to it," Luna quickly interrupted, placing her hand on Luan's shoulder. "Just make sure you stay out of harms way, okay?"

Luan silently nodded as Lola, shocked and disturbed by what she saw, sneaked out of the room.

And with the twins' job done, everybody decided to head downstairs and onto their respective tables: the kiddie table and the adult table.

The adult table was not nearly as quiet as before, but still pretty calm and quiet by Loud standards: Lynn ate her food while looking at it with slight lust, Leni cheerfully ate some of the food a shy, blushing Lori offered her before returning the favor, and Luan and Luna talked about some random stuff, nothing more than that.

Oh, and their parents were there too. "I'm glad to see the girls are slightly recovering," Mr. Loud voiced in relief. "Let's hope the weekend at the resort helps them recover even more."

"Now that you mention it, there's something we need to tell you, kids," Mrs. Loud said as she got up, catching her daughters' attention. Notably, they didn't look scared or worried of what their mom wanted to say, but curious. "As you know, we're going to stay at a resort close to Aloha Beach for the weekend. We'll go to the resort at 3 pm in the vanzilla, so I want you all to be ready by then, understood?"

The teenagers smiled and gave their mother a thumbs up, accompanied by a couple nods. And so, the teens and adults continued to eat their breakfast as, in the kiddie table, Lola and Lana tried to eat while looking at a pretty weird sight: Lucy basically clung to Lincoln's side, occasionally giving him some food while eating her own.

"Hey, Lisa gave you a couple walkie-talkies, but you never used them," Linc pointed out, with Lisa nodding in agreement. "Care to tell us what you s-"

Suddenly, Lucy shoved a nugget up Linc's mouth. "There, my pretty Linky Winky, my Linc Linckety Split," Lucy said in a motherly-though slightly condescending-tone. "Who is my precious Linckety Split? It's you... Yes, it's you..."

After the shock passed, the twins shook their heads back to reality and Lana started, "Okay, so I checked the rooms of Lori and Leni and Lucy and Lynn while Lola checked Luan and Luna's," she shivered as she remembered Lori's glare and Lynn's... closeness. "I couldn't find much with Lori and Leni, since staying longer than necessary would have been suicide, while with Lucy and Lynn, you can guess with Lucy and Lynn... is not doing well."

"What do you mean?" Linc raised an eyebrow.

Cue another nugget being shoved up his mouth.

"She first asked for a body pillow of me, and then when Lana asked if she could fall in love with someone else, she tried to pull a move on her! What a weirdo!" Lucy answered in a harsh, honest tone before changing back to treating Lincoln like he was Lily. "Not like my precious cinnamon bunny! No, not at all!"

This caused Linc to snap and slap Lucy away. "Lucy, stop treating me like a baby!" he barked as he dusted himself. "It's one thing to blurt out you love me like it was supposed to be something natural, it's another to treat me like I can't even take care of myself!"

Distraught and saddened, Lucy heard Linc's words, grabbed her plate and left the kitchen. "You don't have to leave!"

But she had already left.

"Oh well, one less annoyance to deal with for the moment," Lisa nonchalantly shrugged, followed by Linc giving her an "are you serious?!" look. "Lola, what did you see?"

"Well, I saw Luan still had that guitar injury in her...face... but nothing else outside of that, she and Luna seem to be relatively stable," Lola twiddled her fingers and looked at her sister. "I can't help but get the feeling they might be... growing a tad too close to each other."

Lana gasped and placed her hands in her cheeks. "What, did you see them kiss?!"

Lola gave her siblings a "Really?!" look of utter exasperation. "Ew, no! But I get the feeling that, if one of those pairs is going to become a couple, it's totally going to be them."

"Hmm... Lana, keep watching Lucy and Lynn, Lola, keep an eye on Luan and Luna," Lisa ordered. "We must make sure they remain friends or at least close friends until we can figure out how to deal with this."

The twins nodded, and for the remainder of the day nothing major or significant happened at the Loud house. So, going straight to the evening, the Louds finished packing up and they all went to the vanzilla, with the mini-van actually managing to stand having all the luggage and the whole family inside of it. More impressively, Mr. Loud got it working in an instant!

"Who's ready to go to the resort?" Mrs. Loud questioned, clasping her hands.

The Loud siblings raised their hands and said "We do!" before their father drove off into the sunset and onto the resort, all while the family loudly cheered.

Meanwhile, at the Santiago household, Ronnie watched the vanzilla leave for the resort with Cristina by her side, watching with a particularly smug smirk on her face. Once the van was out of view, the redhead took out a walkie-talkie and handed it to Ronnie.

The girl eyed the machine for a moment before snatching it from Cristina's hand. The duo exchanged looks-with Ronnie Anne's looking absolutely disgusted while Cristina's showed smug condescendence-as she turned on the walkie-talkie and said, "This is Philia speaking... are you guys in position?"

After a couple seconds filled with silence, they got their answers:

"Storge, in position."

"Eros, in position."

"Agape, in position."

With that said and done, Ronnie paused before stating, "Operation Heartbreaker has begun," Cristina flashed a grin as the girl hesitantly said it once more, "Repeat: Operation Heartbreaker... has begun."

And then, the call ended and Ronnie saved her walkie-talkie in her pocket, with Cristina giving her a thumbs up. Not that she enjoyed the approval.

And the remaining Four Lovers did the same, with one in particular doing so while standing at the very last floor of the resort the Louds were heading to. This figure, shrouded in shadows, had a teenager physique...and that was all that could be made out of them. As the hours passed, the figure just looked from the top floor until they saw the vanzilla arrive, upon which they vanished into the shadows with a smirk.

Back with the Louds, the kids took the time to relax next to the entrance. This also allowed them to have a better look at the resort's exterior, and let's just say it left them pumped for how the interior would look like.

"So this is the resort Bobby reserved for us?" Leni questioned, scratching her chin before clasping her hands. "It's looks really good!"

"I'll m-make sure to thank Bobby about making a reservation later," and then the parents finished verifying the reservation and whistled for their daughters-and Lincoln-attention. "For now, let's see how it looks from the inside."

And so the Louds headed for their room...which was at the penultimate floor. Once there, they all went inside and were amazed by what they saw: A large TV located in the ceiling, surrounded by a couple couches and with an easily accessible kitchen. not to mention the large windows showcasing the beautiful sunset in the scenery, with purple curtains to block it out if necessary.

"This place is amazing!" most of the Louds exclaimed in joy.

Most except Lisa, who grew suspicious of the generous room. "But I'm pretty sure someone like Bobby wouldn't be capable of paying for this, no matter how much money he made, until he was in college or something," she pointed out, adjusting her glasses as her siblings gave her annoyed looks. "Something isn't right here-"

"Yeah, you're not enjoying your stay while you still can!" Lori stated, grabbing and lifting the little genius before lifting her fist. "Come on, let's see where the bedrooms are!"

And so, the Loud sisters went deeper inside the room while Lincoln remained behind and sat down a couch, with his parents going to the kitchen to make dinner. _"These are pretty comfy couches,"_ he thought before hearing somebody knock the wall.

When he turned to see the person, he saw it was Lucy, who gestured him to come to her while blushing. "What is it, Lucy?" he asked, not feeling like getting out of the comfortable couches anytime soon.

"Come see the bedrooms," was Lucy's only response.

And when the guy simply waved his hand at her, Lucy smiled wider as she went to Lincoln, grabbed the neck of his shirt and pulled him into the bedrooms. As it turned out, there were two doors at the end of a hallway: the left one leading to a room for two, presumably for Mr. and Mrs. Loud, and the right one leading to a room big enough to fit the siblings, with one catch: There were only 5 beds.

"Oh my, looks like we'll have to," Leni started before jokingly leaning closer to Lori and whispering in her ear, "Sleep together."

Lori's face turned completely red and felt a shiver go up her spine as she processed what Leni meant. "O-Okay then!" she soon composed herself and barked at her siblings, "I'll sleep with Leni, everybody else, decide with who you're going to sleep with!"

And so, Leni grabbed Lori's hand and they went to sleep on a bed while the siblings decided who would sleep with who... except Lisa, who simply left.

"We'll sleep together!" Luan and Luna proclaimed.

"If it makes it easier, we'll do the same," Lola and Lana bitterly agreed.

"I'll sleep with Lincoln!" Lucy cheerfully stated.

"I'll sleep with Lucy!" Lynn did the same.

"I'l sleep on the couch!" Linc said before bolting out of the rooms, with Lucy trying to chase after him before Lynn interfered.

"Looks like we're sleeping together, sis!" Lynn enthusiastically said, with Lucy's mood serving as her complete opposite.

 _A couple hours later..._

The Louds-except for Lincoln and Lisa, who were resting at the couch-sat down together and ate the dinner their parents prepared for them: a mix of what was usually served at the kiddie and adult table. Fortunately, the Loud kids were able to enjoy it nonetheless.

"It feels so weird eating all together in the same table," Luan remarked, with Luna "Hey, who wants to be we'll end up going full food fight before going to sleep?"

"If we do, then you're sleeping with Luna," Lori sarcastically bet.

"I'm sleeping with her anyway," Luna gave the comedian a wink.

This made Lori slam her fist into the table. "Aha! You admit defeat!"

"Now, Lori, be nice," Leni said, brushing Lori's hair.

With the teenager purring like a cat, she simply said "Yes Leni" as she grew calmer. This was not lost on the remaining sisters, "You know, I could get used to this Lori," Lola remarked.

Lucy, who was basically glued to her chair by ropes, nodded in agreement.

And then Lynn, who sat next to Lana, approached the tomboy. "Hey, Lana, I'm sorry for asking you this out of nowhere, but..."

The sports fan looked to her left and right, hoping nobody was paying them attention. "I was thinking we could hang out at the beach: throw a couple rocks in the ocean, build sand castles, generally have a good time...what do you say?"

Lana was unsure of what to say. "Uh..."

And then Lynn grabbed her hand. "Listen, I need to take my mind out of a couple of things, most particularly...a certain girl."

The duo turned to see Lynn and Lucy, sitting next to each other, with Lucy clinging to Linc's arm as she fed him his food. The guy was quite clearly uncomfortable with the situation, but Lucy didn't seem to notice. Or she just didn't care.

"I thought you said back at the house that there was no way this was going to work," Lana pointed out.

"...I said that without having experienced it before, without having any clue or any reason to believe that was the case," Lynn responded. "I'm not the kind of girl who does that, so how about we see if we can make this work first?"

With that in mind, Lana finally gave Lynn an answer, "I... guess we can hang out, but no funny business!"

Lynn nodded in agreement, then slowly leaned forward until Lana slapped her face and shouted, "Funny business includes kissing!"

The sports girl grabbed her slapped cheek and nodded. "Right...right...sorry about that..." Lynn blushed and focused on her food. "I got...carried away..."

And so, Lynn ate her food while Lana took out her walkie-talkie. "Lisa, Lincoln, Lynn asked me to hang out with her tomorow, should I go through with it?"

"The chip analysis isn't done and we haven't started the search for Cristina yet," Linc replied before definitely stating, "So, I say you should spend some time with Lynn. Who knows, maybe you'll be able to help her with her Lucy obsession."

Lana was quick to point out something: "And what if it turns into a _me_ obsession?!"

"Just focus on making sure Lynn takes out her mind from Lucy for a while," Lisa explained. "As long as you make it clear you only want to be friends with her, it should be okay."

And so, the call ended and Lana gave Lynn a nervous look, swallowing her fears as she realized the mess she had gotten herself on. As if that wasn't enough, both Leni and Lori were giving the duo a pair of amused looks, which Lana soon noticed. "What are you looking at?" she asked.

"You two are, like, going to look so cute together as a couple," Leni blurted, causing the tomboys to blush. "Although, I wonder what will be your couple name... Lyna, maybe?"

"How about Lyanna?" Lori suggested.

Leni was seemingly amazed. "Oh my gosh, that is the perfect couple name for them!"

"We're not going to be a couple!" Lana vehemently stated, catching her sisters's attention. "We're just going to hang out! Understood?"

A long time filled with silence later, Lana blushed and covered her face with her hat as her sisters laughed out loud, clearly not believing what she was saying.

Not much happened afterwards and, once everybody had finished their dinner, they all went to sleep: The girls and their parents went to their bedrooms while Lincoln got ready to sleep on the couch...and saw Lisa trying to do the same nearby.

However, she seemed slightly...concerned. Scared even. So the boy approached her and asked, "Lisa, I thought you were going to sleep with the girls, what are you doing here?"

"...Listen, Lincoln, normally I would go back and sleep with some company, but... I don't know, I just feel like they wouldn't let me sleep," Lisa explained, avoiding eye contact with her brother. "So, I'll sleep on the couch..."

"Well, why do you seem... scared?" Linc put his hand on Lisa's shoulder. "You can tell me if something's wrong."

"I'm... sleeping for the first time in a new environment I'm not familiar with," Lisa explained, looking at the ground and twiddling her fingers. "Not only that, but along with a research that's taking forever to finish, we're going to have to deal with Cristina and our conflicted sisters sooner or later... and I have no idea what to do."

The last part specially caught Lincoln's attention: Lisa, the smartest of all the Louds, had no idea what to do? That could only mean bad news.

"Until the chip analysis is completed, until we know how to deal with the forced changes brought to our sisters, until we know what is Cristina doing and how we can deal with her... I don't know what's really going on, and I have no idea what we're supposed to do about it."

And so, Lincoln brushed Lisa's hair and gave her a simple suggestion: "For the moment, how about we sleep together?"

Lisa gave Linc a dumbfounded look as, far away in the girls bedroom, Lucy knocked the wall with all her might. "W-What are you saying?" Lisa asked in disbelief.

"What you said is something big to take in, I understand that, but for now how about we sleep together?" Linc pulled Lisa closer with a hug and the knocking grew louder. "Tomorrow we can try to figure out what we should do, but for now, let's just relax, okay?"

Lisa eyed Linc with a look of bewilderment, and she adjusted her glasses once more before giving her answer: "I-If you say so..."

And then, the knocking stopped.

So Linc wrapped himself and Lisa and turned off the TV before hugging Lisa and falling asleep. However, Lisa didn't fall asleep right here and there: she gave a look to the seemingly pleased and satisfied Lincoln, then gave him a smile before returning the hug and falling asleep.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"It's at the desk, still analyzing the dang things," Lisa walked to the machine in question, and what she saw was so shocking, if she had drank anything beforehand, she would've most definitely spat it out this moment. "Oh my gosh, Lincoln, come take a look!"_

 _Lincoln took a look at the analyzer, and saw it was 87% done with the analysis. "But the analyzer was slow as molasses back home!" he exclaimed in shock. "How did it get so fast all of a sudden?!"_

 _"Maybe the higher altitude allows it to gain a higher wi-fi reception, thus maximizing it's performance!" Lisa enthusiastically answered, with Linc being only capable of tilting his head in confusion. "Point is, it got faster, and we'll soon be able to figure out what the heck is up with those chips!"_


	10. A Day at the Beach

The next morning, Lisa woke up to see her entire vision blurred, though she could make out Lincoln giving her an amused smile...and with his left arm raised. He then put it down and revealed he had her glasses. "You shouldn't sleep with your glasses on," he jokingly said as he put the glasses back on Lisa.

The little genius was quick to return the joking tone, "Did you seriously held your hand up all night long?"

"Well, I don't remember, I was asleep while it happened," the pair shared a couple laughs before getting up and stretching. "By the way, where is the thing you use to analyze the chips?"

"It's at the desk, still analyzing the dang things," Lisa walked to the machine in question, and what she saw was so shocking, if she had drank anything beforehand, she would've most definitely spat it out this moment. "Oh my gosh, Lincoln, come take a look!"

Lincoln took a look at the analyzer, and saw it was 87% done with the analysis. "But the analyzer was slow as molasses back home!" he exclaimed in shock. "How did it get so fast all of a sudden?!"

"Maybe the higher altitude allows it to gain a higher wi-fi reception, thus maximizing it's performance!" Lisa enthusiastically answered, with Linc being only capable of tilting his head in confusion. "Point is, it got faster, and we'll soon be able to figure out what the heck is up with those chips!"

And so the duo started to rejoice...when Lucy appeared out of nowhere, looking notably angry. Her arrival brought Linc and Lisa's rejoice to an end. "Hi Lucy," Lisa said. "We have good and bad news. The good news is that thanks to an upgraded performance, the analyzer will allow us. The bad news are that-"

"You slept, with my Lincoln," Lucy bitterly stated.

Lisa paused and adjusted her glasses. "No, the bad news are-"

"You slept, with my Lincoln!" this time, Lucy sounded like she was about to snap.

"No! The analyzer will still require a couple hours before it finishes." Lisa twiddled her fingers as she added, "So we have to wait until lunch time before we can make progress on our mission to figure out what is going on."

Lucy took a couple deep breaths, and then, without warning, she leaped straight for Lisa and bared her teeth as she hissed "You slept with my Lincoln!" at the top of her lungs. Nevertheless, Lori appeared just in time to grab Lucy by the legs, causing her to crash land into the ground.

"Lucy, please wait until after everybody's eaten breakfast before you act like a weirdo," Lori stated. She then turned to Lisa and Lincoln, though she spoke in a slightly gentler tone with them. "And Lisa, I heard everything. I'll tell everybody else about it later, it's about time we made some progress."

And so Lori dragged the emo back to the room as Lisa and Lincoln went back to the couch and relaxed. "Want to see some TV?" Linc asked, taking a hold of the control remote.

"Sure, but I'll warn you, my superior intellect demands a higher standard of entertainment than even most adults," Lisa responded, placing her hands in her hips. "I highly doubt you'll find a channel I enjoy."

Then Linc turned on the TV and the first channel they saw was one starring Blarney the Dinosaur, while fighting a bunch of dullahans. "Oh look, Blarney the Dinosaur," Linc said nonchalantly.

"Don't change the channel, don't change the channel!" Lisa pleaded as Lola and Lana came out of nowhere and sat next to her. "Blar-ney! Blar-ney! Blar-ney!" the girls cheered in unison and with utmost excitement.

Linc shook his head and watched the irish dinosaur with the Blarney Love trio. As they did this, most of the sisters relaxed at the bedroom while Lori and Leni shared the bathroom. Lynn tried to comfort Lucy, with the emo passively trying not to beat her up and Luna and Luan rested on their bed, with Luna somehow teaching Luan how to play a guitar while checking up on her guitar injury.

"So, hey, how's the injury doing, Luan?" Lucy suddenly asked, making Luan flinch.

"Now that she mentions it, how come the guitar didn't snap in half after you hit Luan with it?" Lynn inquired, causing the comedian to wince again.

And then Luna took out the guitar in question. "This little baby is far harder than she looks, and very hard to destroy as well!" Luna proudly proclaimed, though her tone did a complete 180 when she saw how Luan reacted to seeing the guitar again.

She was shivering and shedding tears in sheer terror while covering her injured cheek. "L-Luna... p-p-please put that thing away," she meekly requested.

"W-Wait, Luan, d-don't panic!" Luna showed off a big, slightly forced smile, "See? I'm happy, not angry! I would never hurt you if I was happy!" when that failed to work, Luna threw away her guitar, causing it to hit a cat in the process. "L-Look now, no guitar! And that means no possible way to repeat the injury I gave you! Y-You can relax now!"

After a couple seconds, Luan took a pair of deep breaths before returning to her cheerful self. "Okay, you nearly gave me a heart attack," she said before leaning closer to Luna with a flirtful look, "To repay me, how about you rock my roll, if you know what I mean?"

Lucy and Lynn went "oooh" as Luna's face turned red, followed by some blood coming out of her nose. "I, uh, well, um, you see, uh, I-" she stuttered, trying to think of what to say.

And then Luan slapped her back to reality. "I'm just kidding silly!" and soon after the revelation, Lori and Leni came back into the room and Luan took the chance to grab Luna's hand, "Now come on, let's go to the bathroom."

Luna meekly nodded and followed the comedian as Leni and Lori sat down their bed and the latter took out her phone. "So, Lori, got anything planned for today?" Leni suddenly asked, before suggesting, "I was thinking that, since we're next to a beach, we could go out and spend some time there, what do you think?"

This gave Lori an idea... and a nosebleed. "Well, Leni, you see-" Lori replied, scratching the back of her head.

"Oh come on, Lori, think about it: beach, swimsuits, relaxing, we won't be able to do something like this later!" Leni responded. "Would you kindly agree with me?"

And then Lori's eyes turned green and she answered "S-Sure, I agree" with a deadpan tone.

Leni raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in Lori's behavior. Not that she minded, of course, but it was definitely... strange...

"I always wondered what was up with people getting nosebleeds in order to signify they were horny," Lucy pondered as Lynn played with her hair. "I mean, it's kinda weird that they have enough blood to do that, don't you think?"

Coincidentally, Lynn was having a nosebleed too. "Y-Yeah, weird," she took a couple seconds to smell Lucy's hair, and the nosebleed intensified as she said, "By the way, why are you calmer than usual?"

"Lori told me to remain calm until at least after breakfast, so I decided to restrain myself for the moment," Lucy flatly answered. "But remember to enjoy this while it lasts, 'cause the instant breakfast ends, Linc becomes my world and you become nothing to me, got it?"

Lynn chuckled lustfully as she rubbed Lucy's shoulders. "Oh, you can bet I'm going to enjoy it," and then she licked her lips.

Nearby, Lori and Leni looked with worry before slowly sneaking out of the room, leaving behind the sisters and heading for the living room. "Okay, Lynn has a serious problem with Lucy," Lori stated before turning to Lana, who flinched as she said, "Lana, of all the people you could date, why did you promise Lynn it would be she?"

Lana flinched and Linc and Lisa gave her a surprised look while Lola... looked away and covered her ears. "Again, I'm not going to date her!" the mud lover clearly stated. "I'm just going to hang out with her for a while to see if I can get her mind out of Lucy for once."

At that moment, Leni noticed Lola's state and suggested to Lori, "How about you talk with Linc, Lisa and Lana somewhere else while I deal with Lola?" this earned her a raised eyebrow from the teenager. "She seems to be upset about something."

After thinking about it for a while-that and some puppy dog eyes from Leni-Lori reluctantly accepted and grabbed Lana as she told Linc and Lisa, "Okay, let's talk about this in private, I need to know what exactly you're trying to do," and so everybody followed Lori and left behind Lola and Leni. The latter sat down next to the former, but Lola refused to acknowledge her and turned away.

"What's wrong, Lola?" Leni asked sympathetically, rubbing her sister's back. "You know you can tell me anything."

"...I'm worried about Lana," the pageant princess confessed. "If what you say about Lynn is true, then I'm scared she'll end up doing something bad to Lana..."

Leni was left speechless. She had no idea what to say that could convince the diva that her fears were unfounded, specially with what she saw of Lynn just a moment ago. Nevertheless, she took a deep breath and stated, "Listen, Linc, Lisa and Lana know what they're doing, I'm pretty sure they'll work out how to deal with Lynn. But until then, you should be supportive of your sister, if you love her that much-"

Lola got on the defensive. "Love her?! No! I'm just worried something bad will happen to her!" she hissed, though Leni just smiled and rolled her eyes in amusement. "We don't have feelings for each other!"

"Sure, because I, like, totally believe you," Leni's sarcastic tone said otherwise.

And so, Leni got up and left Lola alone. With nobody else by her side, the pageant diva sat down and surfed the TV as she hoped her siblings, specially Lana, knew what they were doing.

 _Meanwhile, with Lori, Lana, Lincoln and Lisa..._

Lori took the the trio into the girls' bedroom and closed the door before crossing her arms and asking, "Okay, Lana, now explain to us

"I-I don't know, okay? It was an act of desperation!" the mud lover confessed. "I saw Lynn needed to take a break from Lucy, and I thought hanging out with her would be a decent idea. But I don't know what to do beyond that!"

"Well, at least the base you got going is decent enough," Lisa answered, adjusting her glasses. "But we need to bring at least a couple more of our sisters. Just letting Lynn and Lana hang out is bound to spell bad news."

"In that case, I got an idea! Lori proclaimed.

 _A couple seconds later..._

Lori had reunited her siblings and, with Leni by her side, she caught their attention by smacking a pair of metal utensils together.

"Okay everybody, listen up!" Lori shouted, catching everybody's attention. With that done, she threw the utensils away and explained. "This is what we're going to do today: while Lincoln and Lisa wait for the analyzer to finish analyzing the chips, we'll go to the beach in order to relax and take a load off what has happened recently. Are we clear?"

Nearly everybody nodded in agreement, except for Lucy, who vehemently stated, "Hold it! If Linc's staying, then I'm staying as well!"

"Shut up, Lucy, nobody cares!" the teenager hissed, shutting up the emo. "Now everybody, change to your swimsuits and we'll see you downstairs!"

The sisters went back to their bedroom to change while Leni grabbed Lori's arm, got close to her and chirped, "Come on, Lori, let's change together!"

"T-T-T-T-T-T-Together?!" Lori stuttered as blood came out of her nose.

Leni just giggled and said "Oh come on, we shared it together this morning!" before dragging away the embarrassed teenager on the bedroom as well.

So Lisa and Lincoln stayed behind. "Well, what should we do in the meantime?" Lisa asked.

The white-head looked away and scratched her chin before getting an idea, upon which she gave Lisa a wry smile.

Not too long afterwards, the pair had set up a game of chess, with Linc playing the white side of the table while Lisa took the black side. "Well, Lincoln, I'm impressed," Lisa said in a slightly mocking tone. "You've certainly proven to me that people with average intelligence can play chess."

"And I'm just about to show you that people with average intelligence can win at chess against smart people," Lincoln replied, arms crossed.

"Is that a challenge?" Lisa asked with a chuckle. "Fine then, I accept."

Lincoln smirked, "Prepare to be amazed!"

 _Sometime later, with the sisters..._

The Loud sisters arrived at the beach in their swimwear and immediately settled down on the beach shore. Leni and Lori rested on some towels suntanning, with Luan passing by shortly afterwards. "Hey, Lori, do you mind watching the spot for a while?" Leni asked, following Luan's movements. "I have to go... do something."

"Sure, no problem," Lori replied.

So Leni got up, went to Luan and stopped her right on her track. "Hello, my little pun machine," Leni told to her younger sister. "How is everything going with Luna?"

"Uh, it's going fine, I guess," Luan hesitantly answered. "I mean, we've had our fights and..." then she grabbed her covered injury and avoided eye contact. "Well, she even hurt me, and the pain still hasn't gone away..." immediately afterwards, her tone returned to her usual cheerful self, "But you know, outside of that, it's still going well."

Leni smiled, though it was clear she could see past Luan's deception. "Okay, so, tell me, how far have you and Luna gotten? Regarding your relationship, of course," the fashionista asked, wrapping her arm around her sister's shoulder.

Luna fell silent, but Leni patiently waited for her response. The prankster looked at Luan, who was watching Lucy furiously attack the sand with an amused look. "Well, I like to think we're... getting there, you know?" and then, her tone grew somber. "Although, I can't help but wonder if we should even bother with this little gig we have going-"

"But of course you should!" Leni proclaimed in an encouraging tone. "After all, everybody else is doing it, and until Lisa and Lincoln find how to deal with it, we're basically stuck in these relationships, with no way out of them."

"I'm not saying we should just quit them altogether, I'm just... wondering if we should even put effort into it," Luan corrected, pausing before explaining further, "After all, it's not... genuine. And it's not... something we wanted to do in the first place..."

"And even then, every time we feel happiness in this relationship, it's nothing but a facade to hide our real feelings towards the situation..." Leni added in a stern tone, shocking her comedic sister. "Is that what you were going to say next?"

"Well, no... but that's something worth thinking about too..." Luan answered, looking at the ground before clasping her hands. "Leni, how do you feel in regards to your relationship with Lori?"

"Lori is like a servant," Leni scoffed. "After being bossy for so long, she now does whatever I tell her to do, and her personality changes completely whenever I'm around. I'm basically the boss: what I said is done, and she does whatever I tell her to do."

"Huh, well, I'm basically the opposite, though I don't blindly do anything Luna tells me to do," the duo fell silent until Luan spoke again. "Listen, Leni, I have to go meet with Luna. But I liked the talk, thanks for hearing me out."

Leni smiled and brushed her sister's hair. "No problem, Luan."

And so the duo pat the other's back twice before separating. As Luan left, Leni watched as the comedian failed to notice the "Luna's servant" on her back. So Leni turned around and walked back to Lori... while having a "kiss my ass" note on her back.

Up next were Luna and Luan, the latter who sat down while the former-alongside taking off the note on her back-pat her back twice before saying, "Hey, my little sunshine, what if I told you I set you up with someone to try and cheer them up?"

"I love cheering people up!" Luan exclaimed, clasping her hands in joy.

"Great, 'cause Lucy's waiting," Luna remarked, pointing at the goth girl walking back and forth in the water.

Luan's mood did a full 180. "You set me up with Lucy?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips. "What were you thinking?!"

"Hey, she needs someone to cheer her up, and who better to do that than the most cheerful, amazing, and if I may say attractive, sister we got in the family?" Luna explained, making Luan blush.

"Fine, but only because you said so many nice things about me!" Luan replied, putting her hands on her cheeks.

Then she kissed Luna's cheek. "That's for the compliments."

Soon followed by slapping the same cheek. "That's for setting us up without hearing my opinion first."

And so, Luan went to Lucy while Luna rubbed her slapped cheek and watched, chuckling to herself as pink lighting briefly flashed in her head. "I love this girl," she said as the lighting ceased to exist.

And finally, the twins sat together on the sand, with Lola building a sand castle while Lana looked at something. Or someone.

"Okay, Lana, I know there isn't any mud around the beach, but I believe we can improvise something with the sand-" Lola immediately stopped when she saw Lana wasn't paying attention. So she slapped her back to reality and snapped, "Lana, don't you dare ignore me while I'm talking to you!"

The pageant princess looked around before whispering to her twin's ear, "That's Lincoln's job, and he doesn't like it when people other than him do it."

"Sorry, but, Lynn's looking at me, waiting for me even," Lana answered.

The twins turned to look at Lynn, waist-deep into the water and giving Lana a sly smile and a sultry look. Lana took a deep breath and turned to tell her sister, "Sorry, Lola, but I promised Lynn I would hang out with her-"

"Are you seriously going to through with that?!" Lola inquired, her anger very evident in her tone. The tone soon changed to worry when Lana once again looked at Lynn. "She's nuts for Lucy, and pretty aggressive in general! Are you sure you don't wanna tuck your tail between your legs and cancel this mess?"

Lana pinched the bridge of her nose. "Lola-"

"Why don't you hang out with me instead?" the pageant princess quickly, almost desperately, suggested. "I know I'm just as much of a pain in the butt to deal with, but-"

"Listen, Lola, I'm not doing this to spite you, because I can or whatever," Lana started, pausing for a moment as she thought of the right words to say. Once she thought she figured out what those were, she resumed, "I get the feeling that unless somebody does something about Lynn's...condition, it's going to get worse. And since we don't know how to deal with it, hanging out with her is the best I can think."

"But what if she grows obsessed with you?" Lola questioned.

Lana was left speechless...for a couple seconds, before she responded with, "Well... at least I'm taking her mind out of Lucy."

And so Lana went to hang out with Lynn, all while Lola sadly watched her leave, ending with her sand castle crumbling to pieces. She thought about going after her for a moment, but after thinking about it, she gave her sister one last glanced before leaving.

She then went to Leni and Lori, who were tanning each other when they noticed her. More specifically, Lori noticed her while Leni remained in place. "What do you want, twerp?" Lori got up, walked to Lola and placed her hands on her hips. "We're busy tanning!"

"Lana is hanging out with Lynn, and I'm not sure who else I can go to," Lola brushed her arm and bitterly added, "So, I was wondering if you..." she glanced at Lori, who gave her the most rage-filled glare she had seen in a while, and then cut straight to the point: "I want to spend some time with you."

Lori, angry at the perceived competition, grabbed Lola and lifted her as she hissed, "Do you really think I'm going to fall for that? Leni has me already, and there's no room for a threesome, so take your beauty butt and-"

"Lori, what's this about a threesome?" Leni suddenly inquired.

This caused Lori to shiver, drop the girl, and then nervously turn to the teenager as she tried to explain herself: "W-Well, y-you see, Leni d-dearest, Lola, uh, wanted to join us while we were tanning, since Lana is with Lynn. S-So, I figured that, uh, since, uh, we were already in the middle of that, w-we don't really have time for t-t-t-threesome, which would be the three of us together."

 _"Now I can see why Lisa and Lincoln find this whole deal perturbing, Lori changes personalities faster than I win beauty pageants!"_ Lola thought in disbelief, before turning to the reader with a smug smile. _"And I win them in record times!"_

"What are you talking about? I'm, like, totally in the mood for a threesome!" Leni gave Lola a wink before adding, "You know what they say, the more the merrier!"

And so, in equal disbelief, Lori and Lola exchanged looks before the former reluctantly allowed the latter to join. And so, the trio were now tanning together, with Lori changing between focusing on Leni and Lola. "So, Lola, how does it feel to be hanging out with someone other than Lana for once?" Leni suddenly, almost nonchalantly, inquired.

"W-What are you talking about?!" Lola got up and defensively stated. "I definitely hang out with people other than Lana all the time!"

"I mean, like, hanging out with someone other than Lana after you two decided to separate," Leni clarified, with Lori flinching at the question. "Specially since you can see Lana and Lynn having fun from here."

With that in mind, Lola turned to see Lynn and Lana while Lori tried to gesture to Leni to shut up. What the girl saw only reinforced what Leni said: Lana and Lynn were in the middle of a shoulder war with Luan and Lucy, with Luna cheering them on nearby. From their laughter, Lola could tell that they really were having fun, and Lola couldn't help but clutch her stomach as she felt not only a feeling in her gut, but the fact that she was shedding tears.

"W-What is going on?" Lola took a couple of her tears and checked them, which only made her grow more terrified. "W-What is happening?!"

Leni got off the sand against Lori's wishes, and the teenager quickly looked around for something to distract the fashionista...until she saw a crab nearby.

"That's jealousy, darling," Leni said as she crouched to Lola's height and put her hands in her shoulders. "Listen, you may think that just because you and Lana are not sure you got affected by the chips, that means you two don't have feelings for each other. But that's a lie. You're young, so I can't expect you to understand, but what you're feeling right now is something only people romantically interested in other people feel."

And that was the cue, Lori took the crab, got up and slowly reached for Leni's bikini bottom...

"What does it mean?" Lola asked, confused and lost.

"It means-" and suddenly, Leni felt a pain in her buttocks. "There's a crab in my ass!"

The teenager ran away and screamed at the top of her lungs as Lola took what she yelled... rather literally.

"Well, I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like it would logically reach that conclusion," and then she was approached by Lori. "Hey, I think Leni has something up her butt, maybe you should check that out."

"Yeah, I'll check Leni's butt in a moment," and then, in a brief moment of contemplation, a bit of blood fell down Lori's nose before she returned to reality. "And you should go have fun with somebody else, probably Luna, since she's alone at the moment."

And so, Lori ran after Leni as Lola eyed the rock girl and, seeing she was having a good time, decided to join her. "Hey, can I sit down with you?" she asked, approaching Luna.

"Sure, I got space for one more!" Luna chirped, patting the empty space next to her.

And so Lola sat down and was subsequently surprised when Luna pulled her closer in a hug. "Isn't Luan going to dislike seeing you with somebody else?" Lola blurted.

"Nah, Luan's not the jealous type," Luna waved hello to Lynn as she added, "Plus, I really doubt seeing us together will ruin her mood: there's barely anything that can do that!"

Luna looked away with worry as Lola thought about it. However, the sight of Lynn and Lana having fun didn't help her concentration in the slightest. "Luna, if you don't mind, I'm not... feeling too well at the moment-"

"Got butterflies in your stomach, don't cha?" the rock girl joked, earning her a glare from the pageant diva. "Sorry, I'm just trying to lighten the mood since the comedian isn't here. But, let's be honest, do you really want to leave right now? I mean, you just arrived."

"I can't concentrate if I can see Lana having fun with someone that isn't me!" Lola explained, which only got her a smug "oh, really?" look and smile from the rock girl. So she promptly slapped her, "Don't get any dumb ideas!"

And so the pageant diva got up and walked away, but not before giving Lana one last look. Getting an unknown, unpleasant feeling in her gut from watching the duo, she focused on walking back home, without looking back. By the time she reached the room, however, Lisa was in the middle of coming up with chess strategies, with her previous failures showcased as crumbled pieces of paper on the floor. Lincoln was also nowhere to be seen.

"Lisa, what's going on?" Lola asked, approaching the smart brunette. "Where's Lincoln?"

Lisa crumbled another piece of paper and threw it at Lola as she snapped, "He destroyed me in chess!" and she grabbed and pulled her hair as she added, "I need to come up with the perfect chess strategy to get back at him! As for where he is, he's in our room, probably coming up with strategies of his own to remain the chess king..."

In any other situation, Lola would have snapped at Lisa, but seeing the usually stoic genius completely angry threw her off-guard. Not helping matters was when she turned back to normal almost immediately to ask, "By the way, what's going on with you? Why did you return so early?"

"Oh, I felt a bit upset about the Lana-Lynn dilemma, so I decided to go far away from it," Lola hastily answered as she sat on the couch and took the control remote. "Wanna see some TV?"

"Fine, I'll focus on wrecking Linc's game later," Lisa replied.

The little genius sat down next to the pageant diva and the two turned the TV on. "So, how was the beach?" Lisa asked, focusing solely on the screen as Lola started channel surfing.

"It was a nice little detour from the norm," Lola shrugged. "I didn't exactly enjoy the fact that Lana was close to someone like Lynn for an extended period of time, but Leni and Luna made sure I enjoyed my time there."

Lisa and Lola exchanged smiles. That was, without a doubt, not something that was seen every day.

"By the way, I have to ask, are you sure you don't suffer from the same weird feelings all of us have been feeling lately?" Lola asked, and Lisa's stunned silence was all the answer she needed. "Leni told me something that made me curious: just because we didn't reach the first date or something on the game, didn't mean that the chips didn't have an effect on our minds, or something like that."

And Lisa started to grow worried. "W-What do you mean?"

"Well, think of it like this: you wore the VR helmet with the chip at least once, right?" Lisa reluctantly nodded. "And the chip you found in it was defective," Lisa nodded once more. "Well, let's say it was defective all along, then there's no problem, but what if it was a working chip before being replaced by a defective one? Then there's a problem."

"I...still have no idea what you're trying to say," Lisa stated, crossing her arms and looking away.

But deep inside, she knew what the pageant princess was implying, and she didn't like it one bit.

"Basically, if the results say the chips only affect the mind when the first date is reached, then there's a problem, but one easy to deal with. But if simply wearing the helmet is enough to have them change your mind..." Lola paused and hesitated before finishing, "Then you might have feelings for somebody. Probably Lincoln, since you two seem to be sharing a lot of time together."

Lisa's world was shattered.

"Well, it was nice talking with you, sorry for telling you about that creepy weird stuff, but I had to tell it to somebody," Lola put her hand on Lisa's shoulder. "But don't worry, the analyzer should be done soon, and we'll have our answers just as soon, so let's enjoy the Blarney charm for now."

Lisa returned to the world, shaken and disturbed, but she managed to hide it behind a stoic demeanor. She nodded and resumed watching the concert with the pageant diva, just barely managing to not freak out in her presence.

And then, Lana spoke through Lola's walkie-talkie. "Hey, anybody there?"

Lola immediately took out her walkie-talkie and replied in relief, "Lana, is that you?"

"Uh, yeah, can you pass the walkie-talkie to Lisa, please?" the tomboy requested while Lynn could be heard giggling in the background. "I have a status report on Lynn and... I don't think you'll want to hear it."

Lola certainly didn't help her case by her response. "What is she doing to you?!"

"Lola, please, pass it to Lisa!" Lana answered.

The pageant diva begrudgingly handed the object to Lisa... before eavesdropping on it. "Lisa here."

"Lisa, sir, I've hang out with Lynn for an hour now," Lana said this while she and Lynn were slightly submerged in the water, with Lynn tightly hugging the tomboy. "She's grown...affectionate, towards me."

Lola gasped in her mind. "Has she referenced or talked about... her?" Lisa asked.

"No, in fact, they haven't interacted since the chicken fight we had a while ago," Lynn tightened the hug before putting the girl back on her shoulders. "We're currently in a shoulder war with... Lucy and Luan. Miraculously, though, Lynn doesn't seem to notice Lucy right now."

"That's good, make sure she refrains from interacting with her for another hour and we'll see how it works," Lisa explained, with Lola silently snapping at her in the meantime. "Do you require assistance with Lynn?"

And then, Lola got an idea. "Well, some help would be appreciated-" the mud lover paused upon hearing a door being opened and then slammed shut in quick succession. "What was that?"

"Lola just left the room, presumably to go help you deal with Lynn," Lisa flatly answered. "Anyway, good luck with your mission."

Lisa turned off her walkie-talkie as Lana audably groaned in exasperation.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _After rubbing her eyes for a while, Lynn chuckled as pink electricity surrounded her, immediately catching Lana's attention. "So, you want to play rough, little puppy?" she asked._

 _It was in that moment that Lana realized she should probably get the heck out of there. But the instant she tried, Lynn tackled her and pinned her to the ground, before looming over her menacingly._

 _"Then let's play rough!" Lynn hissed, baring her teeth._


	11. Sand Castles and Mud Sisters

Back at the beach, the shoulder wars between Lana, Lynn, Lucy and Luan continued, with the quartet currently caught in a fight to overpower each other. "Give up, Lucy, your pale chicken arms are nothing compared to my muscles!" Lana proudly stated as she started to overpower the goth-emo.

"You're just as slender as me!" Lucy hissed, slowly overpowering the mud lover. "And besides, the only reason you're winning is because you caught me off-guard!"

As the duo continued to wrestle, Luan and Lynn spoke underneath. "So, how's everything going?" Lynn asked, giving the comedian a sly smile.

"Wipe that dang smile out of your face, Lynn!" Luan hissed, uncharacteristically grumpy. "The only reason I'm here is because Luna teamed me up with Lucy without consulting me first, and you can bet I'm going to have a serious talk with her after this is over."

However, Lynn didn't respond, instead she looked at Lucy with goo goo eyes. "Don't you ever wonder why Lucy hides her beautiful eyes?" Lynn asked.

"Are you even listening to me?" Luan asked.

"Hey, do you mind? We're wrestling here!" Lana complained.

But the fun was soon brought to a halt when Luan spotted Lola in the distance, running as fast as she could towards the shoulder wars. However, since she was so far away, the girl got up and narrowed her eyes to try and get a better look, followed by Lana and Lynn turning around to look at the incoming diva.

She was still too far away, though she was certainly getting close, so Lana and Lynn narrowed their eyes as well.

By the third time they tried, Lola was close enough to make out an image, with Lana's frown widened once she realized who was coming. "Oh gosh, it's Lola," she remarked.

And then, without warning, Lola arrived and slapped Lynn hard enough to send her wobbling into the ocean, causing Lana to fall into Lola's arms. "I'm glad I got here before things got worse," the pageant princess said. "Are you okay, Lana?"

"Yeah, I'm okay!" the mud lover hissed before slapping. "But why did you attack Lynn?"

"Hey, you're the one who requested help with dealing with Lynn!" Lola replied, dropping the tomboy into the beach shore.

"And what part of that translates to interrupt our shoulder wars and knock Lynn into the water?" Lana asked as she got up and dusted herself. "Look, if you want, you can act as a referee to our shoulder wars and keep watch on Lynn at the same time, just don't get her angry, okay?"

The pageant diva eventually spat back, "Fine!"

And so Lana returned to Lynn while Lola settled on the sand... and saw Lucy and Luan giving her amused looks. "You two totally acted like a married couple just now!" Luan said with a chuckle.

Lola blushed and shouted, "I want a second opinion!"

"You two totally acted like a married couple just now."

Lola flinched and turned around to see Luna giving her an approving smile. "How long have you been there?" she asked.

"I never left," Luna pointed at Lori and Leni, the former holding back her laughter while the latter had her hands on her cheeks. "And neither have Lori or Leni."

"You two were, like, so funny and cute just now!" Leni remarked. "I really hope you two end up sorting out your issues, you're really good together!"

"And if you don't get by love, at least do so to entertain us," Lori added with a chuckle.

"Oh please, Lori, would you kindly be a bit nicer about it?" Leni replied, gaining a smug smile.

Lori's eyes turned bright green and she put on a goofy smile as she nodded.

 _"I might get used to this,"_ Leni thought, putting on a satisfied smile.

Instead of coming up with some response, Lola curled into a fetal position and tried to hide her entirely-red face while watching the shoulder wars resume. And then, without warning, she heard a voice speak to her:

"Wow, what a sad sight you are... A lover, left without it's significant other... But don't worry, little child, I'm pretty sure you just have to be patient..."

Lola looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. But all she could see was her sisters having fun, specially Lana apparently. And that was when the voice spoke again, but this time it was more... angry.

"Soon enough, you'll get your revenge... Soon enough, your significant other will wish she had never left you... Soon enough, Lynn Jr. will pay!"

The voice vanished as Lola realized something: No matter who it was, there's no way the voice could know Lynn was a Junior at all. So this got her into thinking, who the heck just spoke to her? And what did she meant by...

Soon enough?

 _Back at the resort..._

Linc and Lisa were playing another round of chess, or at least they were before Lincoln basically won the game in a couple of turns. Lisa was left flabbergasted at her repeated loss. "Check please, mate!" Linc said, imitating an Australian accent.

"Unbelievable! That was a scholar's mate, no doubt about it!" Lisa said before pointing at Lincoln. "Are you cheating or something?! How is it possible that you're this good?!"

Linc just shrugged. "Well, what can I say-"

Suddenly, a bell was heard and the duo went to the source of the sound: the analyzer with the chips. "Finally! The analysis is finished!" Lisa exclaimed in joy. And coming from Lisa of all people, it certainly meant a lot. "Now let's get an idea about what's going on!"

"Right!" Linc said, lifting his fist into the air.

Lisa and Linc saw the results come out of the machine, with their joy being slowly replaced with horror as they read them to themselves. After they finished reading the results, Linc took out his phone and sent his family a message:

"The analysis has been finished, and the results worry me. Please come here ASAP! That means as fast as possible!"

 _A couple minutes later..._

Almost the whole family, minus Lynn and Lana, gathered around the couch to hear about the results, with Lola looking quite grumpy. "Okay, I'm going to guess that everybody's here-" Linc started, only for his attention to be caught by Lola's sour mood. "Lola, what is it?"

"I was about to help Lana with Lynn when you called!" Lola answered.

"You can whine about that later!" Lori hissed, shutting up the pageant diva. "Linc, Lisa, what did the results tell you about the chips?"

The duo exchanged worried looks before Lisa took a couple steps forward and explained. "According to the results, once the first date is reached, the chips' primary function is to manipulate the emotional and mental brainwaves of those who are affected, in order to make them think and believe that they have a relationship with a member of the same gender. A.K.A. it turns whoever is affected, gay."

"Okay, that would explain why some of us turned into lesbians," Lori remarked, giving Linc a perplexed look before adding, "But why between us? Just turning us gay shouldn't be enough to make us think incest is a non-issue!"

The family winced at the mention of "incest." Romantic, or beyond, relationships between family.

"The current chips, and even the previous ones, were made with... incest in mind," Lisa hesitantly answered. "So, when the chips take effect, not only do they turn the affected gay, but they also manipulate their mind to make them act a certain way."

"So we're basically being mind-controlled into loving each other!" Leni exclaimed, and going by how her "eureka" face turned into a displeased one, even she realized how ridiculous the situation was getting. "This whole situation's starting to sound like a cheesy Sci-Fi-Anime cashgrab."

"And It's about to get weirder-" Linc added right before he was tackled by Lucy, who tightly hugged him as he tried to get her to go away. "Lisa, can you explain?"

"Most certainly: Apparently, the chips not only allow incest and gay romances to occur, but they also bring forth... significant changes to the mind," everybody raised an eyebrow. "What I mean is that, once the apex of the relationship is achieved, or a close equivalent anyhow, the affected may end up with their minds permanently affected, and changed in order to make sure the relationship can continue."

"Oh, that's, like, really bad news, right?" Leni asked.

"Did you manage to figure out how to cancel or otherwise nullify the chips?" Lori inquired, crossing her arms. "If you found out what happens if they keep working, you must have certainly found a way to make them stop working as well!"

Lisa tried to help Linc get Lucy off him as she answered. "Well, there are two ways to do it: You either get your heart broken, or sharing a kiss with someone with an incompatible chip."

"Wait, what was the second one?" Linc asked.

"If two of the affected, one with a crush on the other and one with a crush on someone else, end up sharing a kiss, then their chips will mutually destroy each other, although the effects would temporarily short out instead-" and soon enough, Lisa realized something. "So, if Lucy and Lynn shared a kiss, their chips' effects would be nullified and they'd return back to normal! For a while, at least."

"Only one problem: Lynn's at the beach with Lana right now, and besides, Lucy isn't going to get out of Linc's hair anytime soon," Lola pointed out. "Getting them both to kiss each other would require a miracle!"

"Ugh, do you really have to be so cynical, Lola?" Luan complained.

"Well, she does have a point," Luna shrugged.

This immediately got on Luan's side. "Why are you picking her side and not mine?!"

"I'm not picking sides, I'm just giving credit where credit's due," Luna answered, brushing Luan's hair in an attempt to calm her down.

"Oh, so when Lola points something everybody would have eventually, she gets credit, but when I give you fashion tips, you don't even acknowledge them!" Leni whined, crossing her arms.

"For shame, Luna!" Lori growled, imitating Leni's movements. "For shame!"

The statement got on Luna's nerves. "Leni wouldn't know a bloody thing about rocker attire even if Lincoln-!"

Suddenly, Lucy left Linc and leaped straight for Luna, clawing at her face as she hissed, "Don't put my Linc in your nonsense!"

It wasn't long before everybody got engaged in a big ball of violence, except for Lisa and Linc, who yelled "Stop!" in unison and somehow managed to get everybody to stop in... positions: Lucy was clawing both Luna and Lori, Luna was about to hit Leni with her guitar, Luan was about to throw a pie at Lucy's face and Leni was lifting Lola and about to reach for her back.

"Listen, there's still something we need to tell you!" Linc said, putting his hands in his hips.

"Actually, your father and I also have something we need to tell you," Mrs. Loud blurted, catching her children's attention. "This is the last day we'll stay at this resort."

The Loud kids were... surprised. "What?!"

Mrs. Loud took a deep breath before explaining: "The reservation expires before lunch tomorrow, so you need to pack up at the very least early morning tomorrow so we can return home. And before you ask, the resort's manager told me, and he also told me that he told Bobby as well, so he was surprised to know we didn't know a thing."

"Now everybody head to your room, except for you Lori, I need you to go pick up Lynn and Lana back at the beach," Mr. Loud added.

"What!?" the teenager shouted.

"It'll get dark soon, and the faster we can tell them both about this stuff, the better," Leni reasoned.

"Fine, but just because Leni gave me some good reasons to do it."

So the Louds went back to their rooms...

...But Lola and Lori remained behind. The diva patiently rested on the couch and waited until Lori left the building before smiling and leaving as well. _"No way am I going to let that sports freak do anything to my twin sister!"_ she thought.

 _Meanwhile, back at the beach..._

The mud lover and sports fan sat down at the shore where they watched the sunset as sound of the water created a soothing, almost serene atmosphere. It no doubt helped the pair calm down, which taking into account all that's happened so far, was definitely something they needed.

"So, did you have fun?" Lynn asked, not bothering to look at Lana. "Did you enjoy our time together... Lana?"

Lana twiddled her fingers as she shyly answered. "Well, I can't lie to you, I did enjoy it a lot."

And then, without warning, the voice spoke again, this time to Lana.

"Well, what do we have here? Spending some quality time with your sister? Sweet. Good for you. I bet there would be a lot of people who would wish to be as lucky as you... not."

This immediately caught Lana's attention. Why the sudden "not" at the end? The girl knew that was mostly used when being sarcastic, but the voice sounded too... neutral to really figure out what it meant.

"Pedestals can be broken, kid. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. So enjoy your pedestal while it stands, child... it will fall eventually... soon enough."

Once the voice stopped talking, Lana returned to reality and turned to look at her older sister.

Lynn gave the mud lover a smile that, while seemingly genuine, certainly implied that the sports fan was hiding something up her sleeves. Lana returned the smile, though hers was notably nervous.

"...Listen, Lynn, I agreed to hang out with you because... we were all growing worried about what would happen if we didn't take... her, out of your mind," Lana confessed, catching her older sister's attention. "You seemed to be obsessed with that girl, and maybe hanging out with someone else would take your mind off her for a while."

"Who... are you talking about?" Lynn asked, tilting her head.

"She doesn't know about Lucy, that's good! I got to keep this going!" Lana took a deep breath and promptly answered. "You know who I'm talking about, and if you don't...well, too bad."

Lynn blinked, still confused. "Now listen, before you get any crazy ideas, we're not dating, we're only hanging out," the mud lover clarified as Lynn grabbed her and pulled her closer for a hug. "A-And no matter how much affection you show me, I won't be up for dating, ever!"

The sports fan chuckled and gently caressed Lana's hair as she said, "Whatever you say... Lucy."

The instant she heard that name, Lana separated from Lynn and backed away in shock. "What... what did you just call me?" she asked, shivering as she feared the worst. "Please... please tell me you said Lana!"

"Why would I say something other than your name... Lucy," Lana backed away once more as Lynn got up and started to approach her, slowly and threateningly. "That's your name, right?"

Not soon afterwards, Lana put two and two together and desperately looked for something to use as a weapon. "This is what it all ways about, wasn't it?" Lana inquired, giving Lynn a furious glare as she shed tears. "You didn't want to hang out just 'cause you needed to take some time away from Lucy, but because you wanted someone to use as a cheap replacement!"

"Come on, Lucy, we both know we wanted to be here," Lynn replied, folding her arms. "We're alone, with the beautiful sunset behind us..."

Lana slipped and hit the sand, with Lynn following soon after. The sports fan gave the mud lover a lustful look, and slowly leaned towards her face. "Do you really want to ruin the moment, Lucy?" Lynn whispered before licking her lips.

And then Lana grabbed a bunch of sand and threw it at Lynn's face, blinding her and allowing her to kick her away. "I. Am not. Lucy!" Lana proclaimed as she got up and Lynn howled in pain. "I'm Lana, your younger sister, and I refuse to continue playing along as your discount Lucy!"

After rubbing her eyes for a while, Lynn chuckled as pink electricity surrounded her, immediately catching Lana's attention. "So, you want to play rough, little puppy?" she asked.

It was in that moment that Lana realized she should probably get the heck out of there. But the instant she tried, Lynn tackled her and pinned her to the ground, before looming over her menacingly.

"Then let's play rough!" Lynn hissed, baring her teeth.

As that happened, Lori, now with a lab coat and sandals alongside her swimwear, walked towards the beach with her hands in her pockets.

She was visibly exasperated at the situation, "I swear, if this whole deal with the chips ends up ruining our day at the beach, I'm so going to whine about this to Bobby!" Lori muttered. "Now that I mention him, I probably should try to call him more often, we might not be dating anymore but it's good to keep an eye on him once in a while."

Soon enough, she reached the outlook that gave a clear view of the beach, so she started to look for her sisters. "Okay, those two should be around here somewhere..." she said before spotting them. "Uh huh, there they-"

And right there, she saw something she wished she had never seen.

What she saw was Lana, on her knees and with her hands being tightly held by one of Lynn's hand, desperately crying and looking away as Lynn used her free hand to go all around Lana's body, while she leaned her face close to Lana, attempting to force eye contact.

But just as Lori got ready to interfere, a passing, pink flash of light dashed past her and went straight for the duo. From the color alone, Lori got an idea of who it was, "Lola?"

"So, tell me, my precious Lucy," Lynn slowly licked Lana's cheek, with the mud lover being unable to do anything but recoil in disgust. "Are you enjoying this yet?"

"No... I'm not... please, stop this!" the tomboy answered, trying her hardest to avoid looking at Lynn. "This... this isn't right!"

And then Lynn's free hand grabbed and tightly squeezed Lana's crotch, causing the tomboy to shiver and freeze in place. "Now let me tell you something, you little bitch," Lynn said as she approached Lana's ear. "I was willing to play nice until you decided to go rough. Now, I will make sure I go as rough as possible on all of your smooth, slender, petite body."

Suddenly, the sports girl bit Lana's ear lobe while her hand continued to squeeze the girl's crotch. However, as the hand slowly got ready for... inserting a couple fingers, Lana desperately tried to break free of Lynn's grasp, "No, please, don't do it! I'm telling you, I'm not Lucy, I'm Lana!"

But Lynn simply released Lana's ear, got ready to invade her privacy once more... and then Lola kicked her hard enough to send her flying away, with Lana promptly falling on her twin sister's arms afterwards. "L-Lo... la?" Lana asked, grabbing her sister's dress. "How... how much did you see?"

"That doesn't matter," Lola stated as she helped her sister get up. "What matters is that you're safe with me by your side, and Lori will get here in a moment."

But Lana continued to shiver, clearly perturbed by what just happened. "You say I'm safe, but... I don't feel like it..." she said, trying to hold back her tears.

Soon afterwards, Lynn came out of the water and shook it off like a dog before giving the duo a malicious smirk. This didn't stop Lola from protecting her sister, so she hid her behind her back. "I'm not going to let you hurt her anymore!" Lola proclaimed.

And as Lana shivered, paralyzed on the spot out of fear, Lynn simply chuckled before cracking her knuckles. "So, Lucy, your little friend Haiku came to save your butt, didn't she?"

The twins soon grew confused, after all, this was all in Lynn's eyes, where Haiku had just come out of nowhere and was protecting Lucy. "Well then, you want to protect her? You're going to have to withstand the punishment I got for her," Lynn added as she walked closer to Lola. "'Cause you see, Lucy has been a bad girl lately, and bad girls need to be punished."

But even with those menacing words, Lola stood her ground. "And very bad girls need to be harshly punished," Lynn added as she reached Lola. And as the duo exchanged stern looks, Lynn leaned closer and scoffed, "And guess what? That includes you."

Either out of instinct or desperation, Lola slapped Lynn hard enough to leave a mark, but the sports girl didn't even flinch. Instead, she turned back with a malicious smirk and said, "Okay, now it definitely includes you."

But before Lynn could make good of her promise, Lori appeared out of nowhere and roundhouse kicked Lynn far away, this time hard enough to knock the sports fan out. "Are you two okay?" she asked without looking at the twins.

"Y-Yes..." Lola answered, though she faltered when she saw Lana was still shivering. "At least, physically-"

"Good. Now listen, Lola, I want you to take Lana back to the resort and try to calm her down," Lori ordered.

"No need to tell me twice!"

And so the pageant diva grabbed her sister in a bridal carry and ran back to the resort as Lori approached the unconscious Lynn, grabbed her and put her on her shoulder before going back to the resort as well.

 _A couple moments later..._

Lynn woke up and found herself back at the bedroom, with nobody else, specially Lucy, around to keep her company. When she tried to get out through the door, however, she found the door was locked. So she banged it repeatedly as she shouted, "Hey, somebody get me out of here!"

But the only ones who could hear her were Lori and Lisa, and neither showed any intention to free her anytime soon. "So, you sure this all we can do for her at the moment?" Lori asked, turning to the little genius.

"It's lamentable to admit it, but yes, this is the only way we can deal with Lynn for now," Lisa answered. "For now, we'll have to try to keep everybody calm, and make sure nobody opens the door and frees her."

So, with Lynn isolated at the moment, the duo reunited with the rest of their sisters and Lincoln. They took a break at the couch, where they watched some TV. Miraculously enough, nobody fought for the control remote, though maybe Mrs. Loud having it had something to do with that.

"Lola, stop it, I already told you I'm fine!" Lana whined as she tried to push her twin away. Lola was currently hugging her closely and tightly.

"No! I left you alone with that psycho for a moment, and the next thing I know is that she's molesting you!" Lola replied, tightening the hug. "I'm never going to leave your side, and I'm never going to let another psycho lay a finger on your pretty, adorable face!"

Lana blushed and gave her twin a confused look. Lola's face turned red as she turned away and said, "You get what I'm talking about!"

"I simply can't believe Lynn's nerve! Treating Lana like she was an object!" Lucy remarked, disgust evident in her tone. She was in the middle of giving Linc a dog collar with "Lucy Loud's property" written in it. "Can you believe it, my Lincoln?"

The boy slapped the collar away the instant Lucy tried to put it on.

And in the meantime, Lisa was talking with Lily, who was too focused on the program to listen. "And I was thinking about telling everybody who made the chips, but after seeing how they took the news about what they did, not to mention what mom and dad revealed next, I simply figured that waiting until we're back home, where we're closer to the jerk who made those things in the first place, is simply a better option than saying it right now." the little genius explained. "You understand, right?"

"Goo-goo!" Lily exclaimed as she extended her arms towards the TV.

So Lisa, taking it as the baby telling her to shut up and watch the TV, turned to the machine and said, "Yeah, maybe I should watch the show and not worry too much about it."

And then there were Luna and Luan, who watched the show together while unknowingly holding hands. Once they noticed just that, they separated and blushed as they took a deep breath.

"So, how are you taking the news?" Luan asked, rubbing the back of her head.

"Well, you know, processing the information and stuff," Luna hastily answered. "How are you taking it?"

The comedian remained silent for a second before answering, "I don't know if we should break up here or keep going. I mean, I like what we got right now, and I would do anything to make it work, but with what we've learned... I'm not sure what to do anymore."

Giving her parents a brief glance, Luna promptly grabbed Luan, pulled her closer to her chest and caressed her hair, making the punmaker blush. "There, there, let your worries rest," she said. "For now, let's take a breather and enjoy the show, okay?"

Luan frowned, then gave Luna a smile as she nodded in agreement. But the rock girl didn't stop there; she gently grabbed Luan's cheeks and started to lean forward.

"Luna?"

And then their eyes met: Luan's eyes showed a lot of conflicted opinions, like what to do, where to go, how to react, what puns or jokes she could make about the situation, if she even should do that. But in Luna's eyes, there was nothing but determination and hedonistic leisure, followed by a subtle, entrancing look. And then she leaned closer...

"L-Luna..."

With their mouths coming closer and closer, Luna licked her lips and opened her mouth...

And then Luan slapped her, shouting "Luna Loud, stop this instant!"

"W-What happened? What is it?" Luna blurted, returning to reality. "D-D-Did I do something wrong?"

"Well, for starters, we're in public," Luan answered.

The duo turned around and saw their family looking firmly at them. Specially their mother and father, who had their arms crossed. "Yeah, not the best place to try make a move on your own sister," Mr. Loud said as his wife shook her head.

Most of them turned back to do their usual business, except for Lori and Leni and Mr. and Mrs. Loud.

"Besides... I'm not ready for this yet," Luan added. "Not only do I think we should at least go out once before even considering it, but we don't even know what could happen."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.

Luan paused, then hesitated before explaining, "Lisa told us that if two incompatible chip-affected people kissed, their chips will be nullified and they'll turn back to normal. But she never told us what could happen if two people who are compatible, or at least like each other as much as we do, end up kissing. Our lives could end up connected somehow, we might end up becoming dependent of each other, we could turn back to normal and desperately try to clean out mouths, and so on and so forth."

"I think I see what you're talking about..." and then, Luna got an idea. "But if you want, we could go out later and..."

Then she whispered something to Luan's ear, something that made her blush and slap her once more. "You pervert!" she chuckled.

And so the duo continued to whisper ideas to each other as Leni noticed and came to a conclusion: they were discussing date details.

"Hey, Lori, I think Luna and Luan are going to go out on a date," Leni remarked while Lori rolled her eyes. "How about we follow them and watch how it goes from the shadows?"

"I'm all up for it if you are," the teen shrugged. "But I have to ask, why do you care?"

"Because we just discovered something... problematic, not too long ago, and as the eldest of all the sisters, we must make sure that our younger siblings are safe, secure, and happy!" Leni proudly explained, though Lori's amused smile and raised eyebrow showed she didn't buy it. "Besides, I, like, really want to see how far their relationship will go! I think they might even share their first kiss!"

"Fine, when they go out on a date, we're going to follow them," Lori said. "But don't get any crazy ideas, there's only a 50/50 shot that they'll have their first kiss in the first date."

"Well then, guess we'll have to, like, cosplay as them and totally go out on a date as well to settle up the score," Leni playfully teased, causing blood to come out of Lori's nose. "Do you get what I mean, Lori deary?"

The teenager covered her nose and got off the couch and ran to the bathroom shouting, "Let's hope that first kiss doesn't disappoint!"

But before they could get there, they were stopped by their parents, who stated, "If you're going to go watch Luna and Luan's date, then we need you to act as our spies."

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"I'll play tomorrow, maybe, but I want to find potential candidates now," and then Lynn realized something: Linc and Lisa were playing chess. Together. "Speaking of which, since when do either of you play chess?"_

 _"As a smart person, I have a history of playing chess in my spare time," Lisa proudly lied._

 _"And I've been playing it as a hobby for a while now," Linc added._


	12. Road to Recovery

At the top floor of the resort, a lone teenager shrouded in shadows received a video call and answered it, with Ronnie and Cristina at the other end. "Eros, give us your status report," Ronnie requested.

"Sure," Eros showed the duo an image of the Loud pairings: Leni/Lori, Luna/Luna, Lana/Lola and... Lisa/Lincoln? "As you can see, there hasn't been much progress regarding the crushes, with Lincoln and Lisa having not even started yet."

"Wait, since when is Lincoln part of this whole deal?" Ronnie asked before turning to Cristina. "Was the chip you put in his helmet one that worked after all?"

Cristina just shrugged. "Anyhow, I have been able to identify something just as important: Lucy and Lynn Loud have returned back to normal, they kissed and their incompability made the chips short circuit," Eros explained.

"Well, it was bound to happen eventually anyway," Ronnie said, with Cristina nodding in agreement. "What about the rest?"

"Lori has become submissive to Leni and seems to see her as a goddess, Lana received a harsh... treatment from Lynn and is being comforted by Lola, and Luna and Luan are getting close to reaching romance status," Eros scratched his head before remembering something important. "Say, are any of these crushes supposed to turn into romances?"

"Well, maybe one or-" Ronnie was quickly corrected when Cristina shook her head. "No, none of the crushes must turn into romance."

"In that case, we have to do something about Luna and Luan," Eros glanced at the screen, showing Luan and Luan's heart was beating pretty hard. "They're really dang close to hitting the romance phase."

"And that's why we have Storge," Ronnie said.

And then, a feminine, teenage figure came into the room and walked forward to the screen. Unlike Eros, her identity was not obscured in the darkness, and she was soon revealed to be Carol Pingrey, a fellow classmate of Lori.

"Storge, this is what we want you to do: Luna and Luan are close to reaching the romance phase, you must make sure they take a couple steps back," Ronnie explained. "Hit Luan, prank Luna, do whatever you can do to keep their blossoming love from... well, blossoming. And if you want, you can also do things to Lori and Leni, but you must focus on Luna and Luan, got it?"

Carol nodded, and as she left the room, she seemingly shape-shifted into an identical replica of Luna. "Let's rock and roll," she said

"Yeah, you're gonna need to try and imitate Luna's voice to make this work," Ronnie said.

Carol took a deep breath, then spoke with what sounded like a British accent, "Bloody Minger, I missed me fish and chips!" then she spoke in her normal voice, "Is that good enough?"

Ronnie and Cristina scratched their chins, exchanged looks and then Ronnie answered, "Actually, just stay quiet. If it works for Cristina, it should work for you."

Carol nodded in agreement.

 _Meanwhile, back with the Louds..._

Lisa watched as she and Lincoln once again played chess, though it was more for practice than an actual game. "And that's how I won, see?" he said after performing a checkmate.

"I still can't believe it, the moves you pulled off worked seamlessly," Lisa remarked. "It's as if you were prepared for any specific move I was going to make-"

And in that instant, the little genius got an idea, "Wait a minute, that's how you've been winning against me, haven't you?"

"Well, when you live with a bunch of sisters, you got to be prepared for anything!" Linc proclaimed, shortly before his tone took a somber tone. "Specially if they start to change because of something you did."

"...What are you talking about?" Lisa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh you know, it's only that I can't help but think about how everything would be better if I had never brought the VR game into the household," Linc explained. "Or if I had tried to figure something about it out before playing it, or have the rest of my sisters play it..."

Lisa looked at the ground, not knowing what to say in response. "And as if that wasn't enough, I failed to tell the rest of our sisters who made the chips," Linc added, causing Lisa to adjust her glasses. "Now we have to wait until we're back home before we can tell them about it! And who knows what kind of trouble will happen before that happens?"

"Linc, you don't have to take all of the blame," Lisa said, catching her brother's attention. "After all, we were both supposed to tell our sisters everything we found out, and I didn't tell them anything either. I'm just as guilty as you are."

"But I'm the one who brought the game in the first place, and thus the one who started this whole mess," Lincoln argued.

"Even then, I... feel like putting all the blame on you is neither fair or likely to help anybody," Lisa rubbed her arm and looked away. "If we're going to say who did something wrong, you shouldn't be the only guilty one."

Linc scratched the back of his head. "I can see where you're going from, but I can't see how you-"

"Lincoln, I built the set-ups and made the copies of the chips, causing the chips' effects to spread and help create this whole mess in the first place," Lisa added, looking at the ground in regret. "And I did all of that without making an analysis first... now you see why I'm just as guilty as you?"

"Okay then, yes, we're both guilty of the charges," Linc said with a chuckle. "So, what do we do now? The rest are busy with their stuff, and we're alone with mom, dad, and Lily."

Lisa turned back to Lincoln, gave him a smile that he gleefully returned... and then reassembled the chess table back to it's default state and stretched her arms, "Now, I'm going to earn the right to be called the Chess Queen!"

"First, you got to beat the king, mere peasant!" Linc stated, stretching as well.

And as the duo played their game, Lucy watched from the shadows, angry and disgusted by the sight. However, instead of getting into trouble and attacking Lisa right there, she went back to the bedroom and grabbed the bedroom keys.

 _"So, Lisa, you decided to steal my Lincoln, didn't you?"_ she thought as she unlocked the door. _"Well, let's see how you feel when I steal your..."_

With the door unlocked, Lucy kicked it open and saw Lynn inside, though thanks to her chip, who she saw was instead... "Clyde McBride!"

Lynn just wordlessly turned to look at the emo, with pink lighting surrounding her face while Lucy approached her, blue lighting doing the exact same thing to her head...

And not too long afterwards, the resort shook, causing Linc and Lisa-oh and the parents-to leave what they were doing and go to the bedroom, only to see Lynn and Lucy, laying on the ground unconscious. "What happened?!" Lincoln exclaimed, grabbing and pulling his hair. "Who unlocked the door?!"

"Lincoln, calm down!" Lisa stated. "All we need to do is make sure to not freak out and-"

And then they all heard Lynn yawning, followed with her waking up and stretching a bit. "Oh hi guys, where is everybody else?" Lynn asked as she got up. "I want to see who's up for some volleyball!" she then lifted her sleeve and showed her "muscles," "I need to put these ladies back in action!"

"... She's talking like herself," Lisa blurted, genuinely surprised.

Lynn walked through her family and promptly went to the kitchen, "I'm also hungry, I'm going to go make myself the mother of all meatball sandwiches!" she said, lifting her fists into the air. "Yeah, meatballs!"

"And she's definitely acting like herself," Mr. and Mrs. Loud said in unison.

"Let's not jump into conclusions just yet," Lisa said, hastily adjusting her glasses. "We still need to see if one thing has been returned to normal," she approached Lynn and pointed at her as she ate her sandwich. "Lynn, do you have a crush on Lucy?"

"The Duchess of Darkness?" Lynn asked, her tone clearly dripping with exasperation. "Listen, I know I tried to make us a thing, but I'm past that and if you don't want to get on my bad side, and you know you won't, then don't mention that stuff again," she took another bite out of her sandwich before adding. "As for crush in general... meh, I'm too focused in balls to really develop something like that at the moment."

"That's all I needed to hear," Lisa said, folding her arms.

So the little genius and Lincoln reunited at the couch, then promptly held hands and excitedly and repeatedly said, "Lynn's back!" as they jumped up and down. "Wait, what about Lucy?" Linc asked, bringing their joy to a halt.

"What about me?"

The pair flinched and screamed before noticing Lucy was around, and as they caught their breath, Lisa said, "Okay, we know she's acting like her normal self," and then she added, "Lucy, do you have a crush on Lincoln?"

The emo reached for her pockets, took out a crumbled piece of paper, then handed it to Lisa. "That poem is my answer," Lucy said.

Lisa opened the paper and she and Lincoln read it's content. It simply had "NO" written in bold letters. "Yep, she's back to normal as well," Linc and Lisa said in unison and in relief. They put their arms behind their heads "Alright, so that's two sisters out of... let's see, 1, 2-"

"About 6, or 4 if Lola and Lana are not interested in each other," Lincoln answered.

Lisa, flustered at the fact that Lincoln answered so fast, quickly saved face and said, "I was about to say that!" as she crossed her arms. This simply earned a laugh from an amused Lincoln.

 _In the meantime, with Luna and Luan..._

Luan tried to perform a comedy routine while Luna watched her, with the voice that spoke to Lola and Lana speaking to Luna during the routine.

 _"So, you want to be a rockstar. A musician. Do you know what happens when a musician gets too popular? Too famous? Dopplegangers are born. Imitations are created. And sometimes, these imitations and dopplegangers can wind up hurting a musician's reputation. Perhaps, it would be best if you two didn't go out at all? It would definitely be for the better, of both of you."_

Once the voice ceased to speak, Luna looked around for the source, which caught Luan's attention. "Is something wrong, Luna?" the comedian asked.

"Uh, no, um..." Luna stuttered, then remembered something. "I'm just wondering where we're going to have our date."

"Oh right, I forgot about that!" Luan exclaimed as she went to Luna's side and sat next to her. "Wanna discuss that now?"

Luna smiled nervously and nodded, still wondering where the voice came from.

 _Meanwhile, with Lori and Leni..._

The duo sat on their parents' bedroom and waited as their parents closed the door, but not before taking one look to see if anybody was coming. Once they saw the coast was clear, they closed the door and approached their daughters.

"Okay, so, we need you to tell us what you want us to do," Lori said, arms crossed. "I mean, you said you wanted us to spy on Luna and Luan, and I'm pretty sure that we can do that, but is that all?"

"Listen, just look to see if Luna and Luan start acting weirder the longer their date goes on," Mr. Loud explained as Mrs. Loud handed Lori and Leni a pair of walkie-talkies. "and if it looks like the date is going to get too steamy, then you must do something to catch their attention and stop them from kissing, or touching, or doing whatever to each other!"

"Using these walkie-talkies, you're going to give us status updates regarding Luna and Luan's date," Mrs. Loud added. "You'll tell us if they're going too far, if you've gotten stuck and need advice on how to get out, stuff like that."

"Hello, yes, I would like a pizza with cheese, sauce, and pizza in it," Leni said to her walkie-talkie, which wasn't even turned on. When she got no response, she touched it and asked, "Hello? Did you get my order?"

"Leni, we're supposed to use these to call mom and dad, not order a pizza," Lori explained. "Besides, your walkie-talkie isn't even on."

Leni turned her walkie-talkie on... then proceeded to order a pizza anyway. "So, hide, watch the date, inform you if anything happens?" Lori recapped. "Got it, we'll let you know if anything happens."

"Please do," Mr. Loud requested.

And so the pair left the room and leaned against the bedroom door, where they heard Luna and Luan inside.

"So, it's decided then?" Luan asked. "We'll go to a cantina for our date?"

"Absolutely, Love," Luna responded.

"They'll be going to a cantina, huh?" Lori said with a chuckle. "Perfect."

And back with Lincoln and Lisa, the duo were about to play chess once more when Lynn popped in and asked, "Hey guys, who wants to play volleyball?" causing the pair to flinch and mess up their game.

"Lynn, we're already busy with a game of our own," Linc said as he put he pieces back on the table.

"Plus, it's getting pretty late, you know?" Lisa added. "Are you sure you'll be allowed to play volleyball at night?"

"I'll play tomorrow, maybe, but I want to find potential candidates now," and then Lynn realized something: Linc and Lisa were playing chess. Together. "Speaking of which, since when do either of you play chess?"

"As a smart person, I have a history of playing chess in my spare time," Lisa proudly lied.

"And I've been playing it as a hobby for a while now," Linc added.

This got Lynn's attention. "Oh really? And how good are you?"

Linc scratched the back of his head as Lisa answered, "He's completely defeated me for the past few games."

Lynn burst out laughing. "Yeah, I don't believe you!"

"No really, he's completely defeated me in the past few rounds!" Lisa said with honesty, but Lynn kept laughing. "Okay, if you think he's that bad, how about you play against him?"

Lynn scoffed, "Fine, I'll show you how wrong you are for once, Lisa," she sat down and cracked her fingers as she added, "This will be over faster than a beauty pageant with Lana replacing Lola!"

"Speaking of them, where are Lola and Lana?" Lincoln asked, taking a look around.

 _Meanwhile, with the twins..._

Lana sat down and drank some hot cocoa, shivering and wrapped in a blanket. Lola sat by her side, grabbing her shoulder and just generally trying to comfort her. "How are you feeling, Lana?" she asked, sounding genuinely empathetic for once.

"I'm... fine... I just... need to get... "her" out of my mind," Lana meekly answered. She then turned to her twin with a nervous smile, "Maybe we should do something together? What would you like to do?"

"Well, we were already at the beach-" Lola remarked.

Lana just barely managed to compose herself and avoid dropping her hot cocoa, making Lola realize it wasn't the time to talk about that place. "And I shouldn't say anything else about it. Well, I think there are mud baths here in the resort. How about we go share one of those?"

"That sounds... nice," Lana answered. And then she imitated her sister, "And it'll definitely help me win the "Miss Mud Bath" pageant!"

In any other situation, Lola would have probably snapped at her, but this wasn't the appropriate time to do that. So she waited until her sister finished her cocoa and guided her to the mud baths. Once there, they didn't really do much outside of enjoy their mud baths, and to be fair, it was probably better that way.

Once they were done and had cleaned themselves, Lola and Lana held hands as they walked together across the resort area, since Lana was a bit too shaken up to head to the beach. "So, how are you feeling after the mud bath, Lana?" Lola asked, brushing Lana's hair.

"I'm... feeling fine, actually," Lana answered, giving her twin sister a pleased smile.

So they continued to walk, at least until Lana lead Lola to a disclosed location. That is, the closet in the bedroom, which was surprisingly empty. "Lana, this is the closet," Lola remarked.

"Okay, this place should be good enough," Lana remarked, leaving Lola to ask dumbfounded. "Good enough for what?"

"A good enough place to tell you what Lynn did to me at the beach."

Lola immediately froze in place. "W-Wait, what?!" she exclaimed as her twin sat down in a bench. "Y-You can't be serious! We just came out of the mud bath! Are you really going to sacrifice your relief just to tell me what happened?!"

"It'll be gone soon enough, what I went through... it's not something a simple mud bath can fix," Lana answered as her twin sat next to her. "Besides, you'll grow curious about it anyway, so I might as well tell you while I have the chance, right?"

Seeing it that way, Lola really couldn't come up with something other than letting her twin explain herself. "Alright, tell me about it."

So Lana took a deep breath before starting, "Okay, so, first we were relaxing at the shore, watching the sunset. She gave me a hug, and when I least expected it... she called me Lucy."

Lola rolled her eyes, of course Lynn would have only seen Lola as a replacement Lucy at that point. Actually, no, there was no way Lynn could confuse Lana for Lucy, so what gives?

"Anyhow, I grew worried, and backed away from her. She continued to call me Lucy, and when I fought back..." Lana stammered, clearly starting to remember the traumatizing event. "I tried to escape, but she pinned me to the ground, and grabbed my hands with her own."

The pageant diva put her hand on her sister's shoulder as she tried to hide her anguish. "She lifted me up, and then, with her free hand, she... touched the rest of my body," she said, pausing to catch her breath as Lola shed a couple tears. "She told me I was a bad girl, that I needed to be punished..."

Then she started to shed tears, but she continued to speak nonetheless, "She licked me, and her free hand groped me while I could do nothing about it," the mud lover covered her face as her shivering intensified. "I was defenseless, and I simply couldn't believe it. I should have tried to defend myself, I should have tried to break free, but... I didn't. I just... let it happen-"

"Lana, don't blame yourself over what Lynn did to you!" Lola barked, no doubt scaring her sister. "She had you restrained and you couldn't do anything about it, but you weren't the one at fault!"

"I begged her to stop, Lola!" the pageant diva flinched at her sister's... aggressive response. "I could have swallowed my fear and showed some resistance, but no! I begged, and cried, and whined for her to stop, I acted like a complete crybaby! A whiny, pathetic crybaby!"

And the girl got on a fetal position as she cried once more, with Lola bringing her some comfort. "I'll admit you didn't act in a way I would expect you to act, but you still acted in a way that was appropriate for the situation," she said. "You were a crybaby, yes, but it was the only thing you could do. And if it helps, I don't see you in a more negative light for acting like that."

Lana, after wiping her tears, got off the bench and chuckled as she saved her hands into her pockets. "Your lies are appreciated, but they won't fix the damage," she said. "And, if I can ask a favor for once, maybe you could keep this a secret between us?"

"...I will," Lola answered.

The twins exchanged smiles and Lola lead Lana to another location, though she couldn't help but worry about her sister's attitude.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _Lynn released her sandwich, walked to Lucy and briefly stopped to look at Linc, who gave her an encouraging smile and a thumbs up. Lynn continued forward and eventually sat next to Lucy, who soon noticed her, "Oh, hi Lynn."_

 _"Hi Lucy," Lynn said, avoiding eye contact. "What are you doing?"_

 _"Writing a poem based on our love triangle with Lincoln," Lucy answered, making Lynn flinch in horror. "It's sad that it happened, but it brought great inspiration to me. Great, traumatizing inspiration."_


	13. Resort-ed Louds

_Back with Linc and Lynn..._

The sports fan received a swift, brutal defeat by the hands of Lincoln at chess, all while a smug Lisa adjusted her glasses and said, "I told you Linc was good at chess."

"Yeah, but I didn't expect him to be the chess god!" Lynn exclaimed as she got up and stomped the ground. "I mean, I knew I wasn't going to get far, but I barely even got a couple moves in before he utterly wrecked my stuff!"

"That's what you get when you challenge the chess king," Linc said with a chuckle.

Angered at the taunt, Lynn grabbed the chess table and flipped it over, though luckily for Lincoln, Lori stopped the table before it could hurt him. "Where did you come from?!" Lynn exclaimed in shock.

"And why did you flip the table straight for Lincoln?" Lori asked as she put the table down. "Come to think of it, what were you two even doing?"

"I played a game of chess with Lincoln and he defeated me!" Lynn whined.

"Hehe, did you really think it could go any other way?" Lori crossed her arms. "Now apologize to Lincoln and take your lose like a winner."

The sports girl walked to Lincoln, muttered "I'm sorry" while her fists shook, and then promptly left. "Thanks for the help, Lori," Linc said, shaking hands with the teenager.

"No problem, but next time, pick someone else to be your partner," Lori then turned to Lisa and brought her to the table. "Someone like Lisa, for example."

With her job done, the teen girl left the room while Linc and Lisa shared looks.

 _Meanwhile, with Leni..._

Leni spoke with her walkie-talkie, though she clearly sounded tired and depressed. "And so, I just want Lori to be her nice self for once, and not her bossy, obnoxious self, you know?" she said, looking away. "You don't know how old it gets to be yelled at by someone who doesn't know how to treat you any other way."

The blonde put the object down and spoke to herself. "Or maybe, she does know how to treat the rest, and she acts so bossy and shouty to me 'cause she has no other way to do it," she mused with a chuckle. "I am just the idiot of the family after all."

And then, a voice spoke to Leni:

 _"Could you explain what you mean, darling?"_

The teenager looked around in confusion before promptly answering:

"Among my sisters, Lucy's the poet, Lynn's the sports girl, Lisa's the genius, and so on and so forth, while Linc's the link that connects us all, keeps us together, even in the darkest moments..." and then Leni turned to look at a mirror, giving her reflection a frown. "But I... am just the brainless beauty. The idiot among the rest. And that's the only reason they notice me: 'cause they see me as a moron..."

 _"But you are not a moron, are you? You are more than that. You could be more than that. But you stay static, because your family stay static. Unchanging. But-wait. Somebody is coming. I have to leave."_

"W-Wait, what are you talking about?!" Leni asked. "Please, you have to tell me! Why is my family static?! I mean, we're not TVs, so what gives?!"

Then, without warning, Lori arrived, forcing Leni to save her walkie-talkie and the voice to go away. "Okay, Leni, we have some time before Luna and Luan go to their date," Lori said as she approached and sat next to Leni. "What would you like to do?"

The girl smiled and leaned her head against Lori's shoulder as she said, "Please be my pillow, I'm tired and I need to relax."

Lori, surprisingly enough, brushed Leni's hair and gently let her rest. "Okay, my dear little Leni, you can sleep on my shoulder," Lori said in a motherly tone. "And don't worry, I'll make sure nothing bad happens to us."

"I really wish that wasn't a lie..." Leni thought as she shed a single tear, her smile remaining frozen.

Then the voice return:

 _"I can make sure you learn how to make sure Lori never lies to you again. Are you interested?"_

Leni didn't respond, instead, she just flashed a curious cat smile...

 _Back at the living room..._

Linc and Lisa briefly played some chess when Lucy arrived and sat on the couch. "Hi Lucy, what's up?" Linc asked.

"Just going to write something," Lucy answered, taking out a piece of paper and a pen. "Keep doing your business like I wasn't here, like usual..."

And so, Linc and Lisa tried to continue playing their game, but Linc put it on hold when he saw Lynn eating a sandwich full of meatballs, all alone, while looking at Lucy. It wasn't long before Lincoln noticed this, so he got up, walked to Lynn and sat next to her... and she defensively took away her sandwich and hissed, "Get your own, buddy!"

"No, I don't want you to share the sandwich," Linc clarified, and Lynn just shrugged and continued eating it. "I just couldn't help but notice you were looking at Lucy."

Lynn immediately started eating slower and avoiding eye contact. "Is there something on your mind?" Linc asked. "You can tell me anything, I'm here for you."

The sports girl swallowed her food, put the sandwich down and explained, "Lincoln, I don't know if Lisa's analysis forgot to mention something or you and Lisa were the ones who forgot to mention it, but Lucy and I were very much conscious as our "love triangle" happened."

This quickly caught Linc's attention. "Wait, you were conscious the entire time? You knew what you were doing?"

"Yes, and before you ask, that also means I was perfectly aware of what I was doing to Lana while we were at the beach," Linc narrowed his eyes. "But before you freak out, I was only aware of the situation, I didn't do anything on my own. In fact, I couldn't do anything on my own, my body moved itself."

"What do you mean by that?" Linc asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My body was pretty much on auto-pilot while that fiasco happened: no matter how much I tried, I couldn't control my body," Lynn further explained. "But we're getting kinda off-topic. I bet you're wondering why I'm looking at Lucy so much."

Linc shrugged. "Well, yeah, I do."

The girl took another bite out of her sandwich before pausing and saying, "I'm not sure if I should apologize for what I did or not."

"That shouldn't be a thing you need to think about, you should definitely apologize!" Linc replied, clearly annoyed. "After what happened between the three of us, apologizing is the least you could do!"

"That's precisely the problem, Lincoln! Simply apologizing won't be enough!" Lynn retorted. "I kissed you, I took her clothes, I acted like a weirdo in general, just saying "I'm sorry" won't get her to forgive and forget what happened!"

"Okay, you have a point, but it still helps if you let her know you're sorry for what happened nevertheless," Linc argued, and Lynn simply nodded in agreement. "Go to her and tell her you're sorry."

Lynn released her sandwich, walked to Lucy and briefly stopped to look at Linc, who gave her an encouraging smile and a thumbs up. Lynn continued forward and eventually sat next to Lucy, who soon noticed her, "Oh, hi Lynn."

"Hi Lucy," Lynn said, avoiding eye contact. "What are you doing?"

"Writing a poem based on our love triangle with Lincoln," Lucy answered, making Lynn flinch in horror. "It's sad that it happened, but it brought great inspiration to me. Great, traumatizing inspiration."

After swallowing her fear, Lynn grabbed her arm before saying, "Listen, Lucy, I'm sorry for what happened, okay?" this seemingly got Lucy's attention, or at least, it made her put the poem down and stop writing it. "For kissing Lincoln, for doing things to Lana, for what I did to you, all of that stuff."

"I understand," Lucy responded. "I was in the same situation as you, unable to act as my body did things I didn't want it to do. So, at least we share the same pain, right?"

The duo turned to each other, and with Lynn flashing a smile, they shared a fist bump as Lynn said, "Right" and Lincoln returned to Lisa. "Okay, so what were we doing again?" Linc asked, cracking his fingers.

"I was about to defeat you at last," Lisa answered, with her pieces seemingly positioned in a way as to make Lincoln's defeat inevitable.

"You cheated and adjusted the chess table to give yourself an advantage, didn't you?" Linc asked, crossing his arms.

And as Lisa blushed and looked away, Lucy giggled and Lynn slapped herself thinking "Why didn't I think of that?!" in exasperation. Lisa then got up and walked away, but not before blowing a raspberry at Lincoln.

"What's up with Lisa?" Lucy asked.

"Maybe she's just upset that I beat her so many times at chess," Lincoln placed his arms behind his head and slightly leaned back. "I am the chess king, after all."

"Take his word for it, he is not joking," Lynn told the emo with slight worry.

"I would've done so anyway, I don't care enough about chess to give it a shot myself," Lucy replied.

And in the meantime, with Lisa, the embarrassed genius firmly looked at the ground as she walked, which wound getting her to bump into Leni, who looked at the girl with a smile. "Leni?" Lisa asked, surprised to see the blonde fashionista.

"Yes, that's me," Leni replied in a seemingly foolish tone. "Is something wrong, sis?"

But Lisa refused to answer.

"Let me guess, Lincoln beat you at chess and you're upset about it?" Leni guessed, putting on a smug smile.

The little genius flinched, honestly believing Leni would have never figured that out, let alone figure it out so fast.

"Listen, if you want to fix your ego, we can play some chess later," the fashionista crouched and placed her hand on her sister's shoulder. "But not now, since Lori and I have some business to do. How about it?"

Lisa blushed, looked away and nodded. Leni just gave her a smile before leaving and heading to the living room. And then, Lisa looked at a nearby mirror, wherein she could only ask a simple question... to herself:

"What's going on with me?"

Suddenly, the voice reminded the teenager of something:

 _"Isn't there something you want to tell her? Something you tried to say before, but she cut you off?"_

"Oh right, thanks weird mysterious voice!" Leni said before returning to Lisa. "Hey, I just remembered there's something we need to discuss-"

"Not now, Leni, I'm... I'm not feeling well," Lisa replied, waving her hand at the girl. "Maybe after I beat you at chess, but not now."

And as Lisa left, Leni frowned and formed a fist. Not helping matters was what the voice said:

 _"Ignored yet again. It gets old after a while, doesn't it? To be told that it will be discussed in another time that may never come? Who knows, perhaps you really should wait until the game of chess?"_

The teenager soon calmed down. "Yeah, maybe after Lisa "beats" me, she'll listen to me!"

The voice chuckled to herself:

 _"That's what you think."_

 _Meanwhile, at the bedroom..._

Luna and Luan sat on their bed together, holding hands and watching the ceiling. Luna had her remaining arm placed behind her head, while Luna had her free arm resting over her stomach.

"Hey, Luna?" Luan blurted.

"Yes, Love?" Luna asked, perking up.

"One thing that's been bothering about this vacation is that we never really got to have our date at the cantina," the comedian confessed. "I mean, we had a decent place to have it, and we were about to do it, and then, out of nowhere, Lori's ex-boyfriend forces us to cancel it."

Then, as Luan realized something important, Luna took a deep breath and responded, "Listen, Luan, I know it's hard to adapt to such an abrupt change, but some minor things aside, this vacation has been mostly fun," and then, she turned to Luan and gave her a reassuring look. "Besides, we can always have our date at another cantina, right?"

Luan, however, mostly focused on a single thing: "Did you just call me Love?"

Realizing what she did, Luna's face turned red and she turned away as both she and Luan got up. Soon afterwards, Luan made Luna look at her, grabbed her cheeks and then the lovers closed their eyes and leaned closer towards each other, until their lips met and engaged in a kiss.

A kiss long enough to allow several pink electricity to cycle around them, ending with a clash at the top of their heads that resembled a heart... just as a flash of white happened.

With that done, they soon separated and opened their eyes again, with Luna notably shedding a couple tears. "Lo... Luan, why did you do that?" Luna asked, sounding legitimately dumbfounded. "Why did we do _that_?"

"Does the reason matter?" Luan answered with a shrug.

Luna chuckled and shook her head, "Give me a heads up next time, okay?"

Luan nodded and the duo's sweet moment was interrupted when they heard someone bump into something, and then turned to see the door semingly close on her own. However, they shrugged it off and went back to bed as outside, Lori-looking at her phone's camera-saw the picture she took regarding Luan and Luna's kiss.

"Perfect," she said as a shadowy figure went to her. "Just wait until mom and dad see this!"

"See what, darling?"

Lori tried to slap the figure, but they effortlessly caught her arm and revealed themselves to be Leni, sporting a smug smile. "Leni, don't scare me like that," Lori requested before showing the photo to her. "Anyway, I saw Luna and Luan kiss, we must show this to mom and dad right away!"

"Oh my, I missed their first kiss?" Leni said in disappointment. "Oh well, at least there's a first kiss I know I'm not going to miss!"

Leni tried to steal a kiss from Lori, only for the teenager to dodge her and head straight for her parents' bedroom as she stuttered, "M-M-Maybe later, Leni! Mom and dad must see this first!"

And then, as Lori went into the room, Leni gave her a look of disapproval and annoyance. But instead of going after her sister, Leni went to the living room, snapped her fingers and gestured Lincoln, Lynn, and Lucy to leave, which they did after she snapped her fingers and gave them a furious look.

So, with only her and Lisa remaining, Leni sat down at the opposite end of the table as she said, "Remember when I said we would play chess later?" and then she showed Lisa a pair of determined eyes. "I would like to play right here, right now."

The small genius adjusted her glasses before returning the determined glare. "Fine, but don't think I'm gonna go easy on you!" Lisa taunted as she sat on the black side of the table.

"Fine by me," Leni taunted, sitting on the white side of the table.

 _Outside the room..._

Lynn, Lucy and Lincoln stood outside the door, with Lucy having her arms folded and Lynn placing her arms behind her head. "Well, I guess Leni and Lisa have something to do," Lincoln remarked before turning to his sisters. "So, how about we look around?"

"Sure, let's go up," Lynn suggested, pointing at a staircase going up. "I always wondered where those stairs lead to."

As soon as the sports girl reached the staircase, however, she looked up and saw a disturbing sight. Somebody who looked like Lana, shaking, grabbing her toad, and sucking her middle finger like a baby. The mere sight of the girl made Lynn stop on her tracks and shiver as her heart skipped a beat, with a couple more beats being missed as "Lana" turned to Lynn, gave her a small smile filled with broken, bleeding teeth...

And then asked, sounding in the verge of crying, "Why did you hurt me, Lynn?"

The girl freaked out and ran as far away as possible until she hit a wall, wherein she clutched her chest as she caught her breath as Lucy and Lincoln quickly ran to her side. "Lynn, what happened?!" Lincoln asked as Lucy checked her pulse.

"L-L-Lana... L-Lana... she's upstairs!" Lynn answered, grabbing her hair as she bit her fingernails. "She's shaking... she's bleeding..."

But when Lynn took her siblings to see the Lana upstairs, they saw... nothing. Like nobody had been there. "Maybe we shouldn't go upstairs," Lucy remarked. "How about we go downstairs instead?"

Lynn quickly nodded and she followed her siblings down the building, while "Lana" watched them with a smug smile and before shapeshifting back into her true form: Carol Pingrey, A.K.A Storge. "Okay, Storge, you had your fun, now refrain from changing your form until the date, okay?" Eros, who leaned against a wall nearby, sternly said.

The teenager wordless rolled her eyes in exasperation.

And as the trio went down the building and checked around their surroundings, Lynn looked away as she said, "Say, Linc, sorry for what happened between the three of us," which caught Lincoln's attention.

"Yeah, that was rather unfortunate," Lucy added, looking at the ground in regret.

"Hey, neither of you could do anything about it, don't beat up yourselves over it," Linc replied. "Now, since nobody seems to be around, who wants to race to the bottom floor?"

Lucy opened her mouth to say something, right before running to get an advantage, with Lincoln laughing as he chased her. "Hey, wait for me!" Lynn exclaimed with a laugh.

And just as she laughed, Lincoln and Lucy stopped.

 _"Aw, how nice of them to let me catch up!"_ Lynn thought.

Just before Lynn could get to her siblings, though, she heard Linc say something that sent a shiver up her spine:

"Oh look, there's Lola and Lana!"

Immediately after he said that, Lynn froze in place as she remembered what she did to Lana, what this caused her psychologically, and what it all lead to. So she quickly hid inside a plant and watched as Linc and Lucy spoke with the twins.

"How are you doing, Lana?" Lucy asked.

"I'm feeling a little bit better, thanks for asking," Lana said, rubbing her baseball cap as she looked at the ground. "Not enough to recover from what happened, though."

"Now's my turn: what are you doing here?" Lola asked, placing her hand in Lana's shoulder.

"Leni took us out to play chess with Lisa," Lincoln answered, and the twins' holding back their laughter made it hard to tell whether they believed him or not. "And since we might not be returning for a while, do you mind if we hang out with-"

"Sorry, but this is between Lana and I, got it?" Lola stated with slight hostility in her tone. "Now, if you don't mind, we have to look for something to take Lana's mind out of the gutter. Bye!"

And so the twins continued on their way around the building, allowing Lynn to come out of hiding once they were out of sight. "Thank goodness they left," she remarked as she leaned against the wall. "I was starting to worry you were going to keep them at bay."

The sports girl slid down to the floor as Lucy and Lincoln approached her. "Avoiding meeting with Lana can only work for so long, you know?" Lucy told her older sister.

"Yes, but what else am I supposed to do?" Lynn replied as she got on a fetal position. "I did terrible things to her, and she's probably not going to forgive and specially not going to forget what I did. Besides, Lola was with her! Can you imagine what she'll do to me once she finds me?!"

The trio immediately thought that Lola would drink... something, while Lynn's bloody, decapitated head hung up on the wall. They all shivered in disgust, "Yeah, it's better that you remain hiding for the moment," Linc said. "Anyway, do you still want to hang out?"

"Are you sure I won't end up doing things to either of you, like I did with Lana?" Lynn asked, her tone dripping with worry.

"Hey, that was back when you were controlled by the chip," Lucy argued.

"But now, you're now back to the Lynn we know and love," Linc added as he extended his hand towards Lynn. "and you're not leaving anytime soon, just as we won't leave you either."

Lucy nodded and flashed a smile as she extended her hand as well. Lynn quickly returned the smiles with a hopeful look as she took the hands and got up, upon which the trio continued to go their way across the building.

 _Back at the room..._

"Mom! Dad!" Lori shouted as she bursted into her parent's room. "I've got visual proof regarding a new development between Luna and Luan!"

The adults immediately ran to the teenager. "Well, what is it Lori?" Lynn Sr. asked.

Lori responded by showing them the photo of their two daughters kissing, "I think their relationship has gotten really far..." and once the adults had seen the photo, she took a quick look at it again and saw how happy the duo looked as they kissed. "And, they seem to be... happy, too..."

Rita put her hands on her thighs and said, "I'm going to give those two a piece of my-"

"Mom, please don't..." Lori sighs as she continues, "They're really happy, or at least they look like it, and I don't think it's a good idea to break them up right now."

Lynn Sr then cuts in, "Lori, what are you talking about? We all know that the chips are making you all feel those feelings you're... well, point is, none of those feelings are real!"

"Chips or no chips, I'm just saying that, they're happy and really haven't gone too far. I don't think you should break them up just yet."

Both parents look at each other for a moment, before turning back to their daughter, "Fine, we'll let this one slide for their happiness, but if they start going beyond kissing, we want you and Leni to break them up, got it?"

Lori flinched, but eventually she silently nodded before leaving the room. Then, she took another look at the photo and her frown simply grew wider. "Ugh, please don't force me to break you up, girls," Lori mentally requested.

 _Meanwhile, with Luna and Luan..._

Luna caressed Luan's healthy cheek while carefully touching her injured cheek, to see if she could still feel the pain of the injury. It was healing, no doubt about it, but the fact that it took so long to heal was... disturbing, to say the least.

"How does it feel, Love?" Luna asked.

"Hurts a bit, but a lot less than before," Luan answered, blushing and looking away. "I think it's finally healing."

"It's healing, alright, but not fast enough..." Luna took a quick look at the injury before releasing the comedian. "Luan, can I talk with you about something? It's important."

The prankster paused and thought about it for a moment: she didn't knew what Luna wanted to talk about with her, but if it was that important, it probably wouldn't hurt to discuss it... right?

"Sure, go ahead," she answered, twiddling her fingers.

Luna scratched the back of her head, trying to come up with the perfect way to gently get her point across. "You see, Luan, when... um..." then, she soon got an idea. "Okay, so, you're not just a comedian, you're also like a prankster, right?"

"Those people that like to pull off pranks?" then, in what seemed like an instant, Luan covered her mouth and tried her hardest to hold back her laughter. "Nope, not like one of those at all!"

"You just pulled down my skirt, didn't you?" Luna asked in exasperation.

The comedian fell back and laughed like a hyena as Luna looked down and saw that yes, Luan had somehow managed to pull down her skirt, revealing blue boxers. The rock girl put her skirt back up as she gave Luan a furious look. The prankster's laughter soon ceased once she saw the look, "You don't find it funny?" she asked, slightly worried.

"No, and that's the problem," Luna answered, folding her arms. "Luan, I hate to tell you this so bluntly, but the only one who finds your pranks funny is... well, you."

Luna fell silent... before waving her hand and saying, "D-D-Don't be ridiculous! I mean, yeah, my sense of humor isn't shared by everybody, but I do make some people laugh! I mean, I made Lynn laugh once!"

"That was only when the joke was on you, and not her," Luna explained.

Luan shrinked as she listed her siblings' names, with Luna coming with a sharp explanation-though it was clear she wasn't exactly enjoying having such explanation at hand-soon afterwards:

"Lori?"

"She laughed to get rid of you."

"Lincoln?"

"He... laughed to please you: he didn't have the heart to... well, you know..."

"Lola?"

"She... laughed _at_ you, not _with_ you..."

"L-Leni?"

"...Well, it was kind of a mix between Lincoln and Lori: she laughed to get rid of you... and because she was too nice to do it in any other way."

"... L-L... Lily?"

"She... Well, she laughs at everything in general. No offense, but... with that in mind, I'm surprised you didn't figure it out sooner."

And soon enough, Luan's fragile smile turned into a frown as she looked at the floor, coming to a harsh realization: "Nobody finds me funny, isn't it?" she asked, sounding like she was very close to breaking down.

"Well, your pranks and your jokes..." Luna paused and hesitated, seeing as Luan probably couldn't take another harsh truth to the face. "The former... yes, nobody finds them funny, but for the latter... I think they're kind of funny in a... pretty bad way."

The comedian raised an eyebrow as Luna hastily explained, "Think of it like this: your jokes and puns tend to be so bad, people find it genuinely funny how bad they are."

... Luan's frown turned into a small, slightly relieved smile. "So, that's how it is..." she remarked before asking. "Wait, what about... every April 1st?"

Luna froze and twiddled her fingers. "Yeah... we, kinda call it the "Prank-Pocalypse" for a reason..." she answered with a nervous smile.

"Let me guess, you don't want me to make any jokes or pranks during our date?" Luan guessed, looking at the ground.

"No, the jokes are fine on their own, it's the pranks that worry me," Luna explained. "I mean, do you know how much trouble we could get into if you wound up pranking someone at the wrong time?"

"Story of my life..." Luan muttered.

But just as Luna asked "what?" Luan gave her a sincere smile and said, "I understand. I'll try to keep the pranking and the joking at a minimum for our date."

Luna sighed in relief. "Thank gosh you got it, I was worried I would have to explain everything to you," she said as she got on the bed and placed her arms behind her head. "Okay, we got some time before the date, so what would you like to do?"

Luan didn't answer right there, instead she put on a pained smile as she slept with Luna, holding her tightly as she tried to hold back her tears. She had no other choice. She needed to be strong, for Luna, for their relationship...

"Let's discuss the date," she answered, making sure to avoid eye contact with the girl.

And while Luna begun to say her ideas for the date, Luan could only think, "Why didn't nobody tell me all of this earlier?"

And finally, with Leni and Lisa, the fashionista raised her fists victoriously and shouted, "Fool's Mate!"

Apparently, she didn't realize she had lost the game. Or just didn't care.

"Leni, you lost the game," Lisa stated, crossing her arms. "You're not supposed to celebrate when you lose a game."

"But I made you happy, and that's what matters the most to me!" Leni replied. "Besides, didn't you want to take a break from losing to Lincoln so often?"

Lisa, looking legitimately surprised, turned away and rubbed her arm. "Listen, we can play again if beating me one time is not enough," Leni said. "But in my opinion, you should focus more on having and focus less on winning. Now, since you beat me, how about we discuss that important thing-"

"Not now, Leni," Lisa stated, looking at the ground.

"B-But, you promised..." Leni formed a fist and slammed it at the table, sending some chess pieces flying. "You promised me we would discuss this after we finished playing chess!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but I'm still not feeling like talking about anything at the moment," Lisa replied. "Could you please leave me alone?"

And so Leni got up and left the room, leaving Lisa behind to look at the window in contemplation. As she did that, Leni went to the bathroom and started to punch the walls.

"You promised me, Lisa! You promised me we would talk!" Leni whined. "Why even make a promise, if you don't intend to keep it!?"

Suddenly, the voice returned:

 _"Let me guess, Lisa refused to talk. She betrayed your trust. It's annoying, isn't it? Well, what would you say if I told you there is a way to make sure she nevers makes empty promises again?"_

Leni stopped right before she punched the wall again, and flashed a smile.

"Tell me."

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _The trio simply waved goodbye as Leni and Lori went past them, without even noticing or acknowledging their presence. But nevertheless, the trio went back to the penultimate floor and went inside as Linc said, "I tell you guys, Lisa's definitely going to like this."_

 _However, his attention was soon caught when he saw Lisa, looking firmly at the moonlit scenery on the window while sadly drinking something. Maybe juice. "Lincoln, why haven't you come back?" she said to herself before taking another sip of her cup._


	14. Storge

Soon enough, it became night time at the resort, with the moonlight sliding into the top room of the building as Eros, otherwise known as *&?V^ and Storge, otherwise known as Carol Pingrey, had a meeting with Cristina and Ronnie... that is, the two sat together on the couch while the large monitor in front of them showed Cristina and Ronnie on the screen.

"Okay, It's about time for the dates to start, so we hope you're ready for the mission," Ronnie said as Cristina nodded.

"Wait, what makes you think Luna and Luan are going to date at night?" Eros asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Did they date at any other time prior to this time?" Ronnie replied.

"Well, no but-"

"Then they're going to date right now," Ronnie stated, in a tone sounding like she wasn't trying to treat Eros like a subordinate, but more like an apprentice who wouldn't get the lesson. "Now, Eros, you're going to manage Storge's progress and make sure she succeeds in her mission, while Storge, you must shape shift into Luna and replace her while she's away, so you can ruin their date."

Carol wrapped her arm confidently around Eros, only for the guy to slap her away. "Now, we have no knowledge about what happened prior to this point, so you're going to have to improvise," Ronnie explained to the teenager, while Cristina gave her a thumbs up and a smile. "But most importantly, you must make sure Luan's convinced that you're the real Luna."

Carol nodded with a proud, smug smile. "And most importantly, if Luna is coming back, get out of there!" Ronnie snarled, making the teen girl flinch and back away. "Just because you have blonde hair doesn't mean you have an excuse to be an idiot!" the teenager narrowed her eyes, obviously offended by the remark. "So, to recap: shape shift into Luna, ruin her and Luan's date, then escape. If Luna is coming back, get out of there. Got it?"

The teenagers exchanged looks before nodding in unison, with the monitor turning off soon afterwards.

"I really hope this ends up being worth it in the end," Carol remarked, arms folded. "I'm going to get in such with my boss."

"Wait, how old are you?" Eros inquired.

Carol's glare and subsequent response was enough to get the teen to realize his mistake: "Old enough to get a job, and that's all you're getting, capiche?"

 _Meanwhile, at Mr. and Mrs. Loud's room..._

Lori and Leni were getting prepared to spy on Luan and Luan's date, with the duo not having come out of the bedroom yet. "Okay, Leni, you remember what we're supposed to do?" Lori asked to her sister... while she was applying make-up.

"Absolutely, love!" Leni replied in a British tone, obviously imitating Luna. "We'll go see Luna and Luan's date, then if something happens, we'll make sure they don't go too far! Am I right or am I right?"

Lori blushed and stuttered, "F-Focus on the mission!" before adding, "We must make sure their date doesn't end up ruined."

"Why?" Leni asked, quickly dropping the British charade.

"I don't know, I just saw they were so happy and..." Lori took a deep breath before meeting with Leni's angry glare. "Well, they're really happy together. Don't you think we should give them a break and let them be happy?"

After a couple of silent seconds, Leni started to leave the room as Lori asked, "Wait, is it something that I said? What did I do?"

"Why do you care? You have to focus on Luna and Luan, remember?" Leni snarled. "It's not like you have to focus on anything else."

And so, Leni left the room and slammed the door shut, leaving behind a confused Lori. However, just as the teenager pondered what she did, she heard her parents say, "So, why are you still here?"

This immediately sent a shiver up her spine, and she gave the a nervous smile before she left the room... and saw Leni looking through the window to the bedroom. "Leni, what are you doing?" Lori asked, walking to the fashionista's side.

Leni answered, "Our job is to watch Luna and Luan's date, so I want to see when they-"

Suddenly, the door opened and as Leni yelped in pain, Luna and Luan-holding hands-stopped when they saw Lori on their way. "Hey, do you mind moving out of the way?" Luna requested. "We... kind of have to go somewhere."

Lori moved aside, and by the time Luna and Luan had left the building, the teenager closed the door, helped Leni recover consciousness and ran after the duo shortly afterwards, leaving Lisa behind. Speaking of her, the little genius just sat on the couch, watching her unfinished chess game while hearing Lola speak through the walkie-talkie.

"So, Lana and I are about to be done with our little walk," the pageant princess said. "However, I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about why Lana is so upset, or anything specific for that matter. I gave Lana my word. Now, just wait for a while, and we'll be back in a moment, okay?"

Lisa's expression certainly showed she gave exactly zero... flying feathers about it. And once the walkie-talkie turned off, she called Lincoln, only to hear static. "Come on, Lincoln, answer me," Lisa mentally requested. "Please, don't leave me hanging."

 _Meanwhile, with Lincoln, Lucy and Lynn..._

The trio ate at a small cantina at the lower level of the building, while Lincoln's pant rang, no doubt from Lisa calling him. It wasn't long before Lynn noticed and said, "Uh, bro, I think your pockets are ringing."

So Linc focused on his pockets, took out his walkie-talkie and answered, "Hello?"

"At freaking last you answer me back, you...well, you," Lisa said through the other end, causing the trio to flinch in terror. "Where the heck are you?"

"Relax, I'm just eating dinner with Lynn and Lucy, once we finish we'll go back up," Lincoln hastily explained. "Speaking of which, would you like us to bring you anything?"

Lisa hissed once more, "Yes: a plate of you, with a side of Lynn and Lucy, and I want it the family room, right now."

And then the walkie-talkie turned off, with Lucy and Lynn avoiding eye contact as Lincoln saved it in his pocket. "Well, that was awkward," Lynn said.

"You know, Linc, I get the feeling that Lisa's really worried about you specifically," Lucy remarked, catching her brother's attention. "Maybe, I don't know, we should immediately go back to the room once we finish our dinner? And maybe bring something to her?"

"I guess you have a point there, Lucy," Linc said. "But until then, how about we talk or spend some more time together?"

"Linc, don't be offended, but what just happened was a tad too awkward for me to stomach," Lynn replied, looking around with worry. "So how about we shut up and eat so we can go back to the room as soon as possible?"

"You're just worried that Lola's going to see you, aren't you?" Lucy inquired, crossing her arms.

"Can you blame me?!" Lynn suddenly snapped. "Lola is... well, Lola! If she finds me, she's going to torment me until I mentally turn into a whimpering puppy! Every second I spend out here in the open is another second I could potentially be taken to her torture room!"

"Lola doesn't have a torture room," Lucy replied, shaking her head.

"Or maybe that's what she wants us to think!" Lynn responded. "Shut up and eat your dinner so we can get outta here!"

So, without having any more comebacks or counter-arguments, the Louds continued to eat dinner until they finished. With that done, Lincoln bought a salad before heading back to the penultimate floor with his sisters. "I'm sure Lisa's going to enjoy this salad," he said with a lot of confidence.

"Why? What does it have?" Lucy asked.

"I'm going to keep that as a secret," Linc replied, right before the trio met with Luna and Luan. "Oh, hi guys!"

"Uh," Luna and Luan quickly separated hands. "Hi, Linc! We were just, um, going out for a stroll."

"What's that you got there?" Luan asked.

"It's a salad for Lisa," Linc answered. "She's apparently worried for us, so I thought I'd take it to her to calm her worries."

"You know you can do a better job at that by going back to the room, right?" Luna said before dragging Luan with her. "Well, we got to get going, so good luck bro!"

The trio simply waved goodbye as Leni and Lori went past them, without even noticing or acknowledging their presence. But nevertheless, the trio went back to the penultimate floor and went inside as Linc said, "I tell you guys, Lisa's definitely going to like this."

However, his attention was soon caught when he saw Lisa, looking firmly at the moonlit scenery on the window while sadly drinking something. Maybe juice. "Lincoln, why haven't you come back?" she said to herself before taking another sip of her cup.

So, seeing Lisa was rather upset, Lynn and Lucy remained behind while Lincoln went forward to Lisa. "Hi, Lisa," he greeted, immediately catching the little genius's attention as he put the salad on the table. "Sorry for taking longer than-"

And then, without warning, Lisa placed her drink on the table and tightly hugged Lincoln. "-Usual?" he finished. "You know, Lisa, we're growing rather... close, don't you think?"

"I know... but I'm more worried about you," Lisa replied, tightening the hug. "You spent so much time with Lucy and Lynn... you ignored my calls... Lola and Lana didn't tell me anything about you... I was worried that..."

Linc soon returned the hug. "You don't need to worry anymore," he said in a reassuring tone. "I'm here for you, and I won't be leaving anytime soon."

Lisa, instead of answering with words, simply smiled as the pair continued to hug, with Lucy and Lynn. "Aw, they make a cute couple, don't they?" Lucy remarked, clasping her hands with hope.

Lynn, however, snickered at her words, and Lucy quickly caught on. "What?" she asked, but Lynn walked away as she continued to laugh, with Lucy following her, "Come on, Lynn, answer me!"

And then, she said, "Or at least, tell me what we're supposed to do right now!"

The sports girl's laughter immediately dropped to a halt and she stopped on her tracks. "I mean, after what happened, after what we did... just, writing poems about it isn't going to help me get over it," Lucy explained as Lynn frowned. "I need to know what you think... what should we do now?"

Then, the voice returned and spoke to Lynn:

 _"Just leave her alone, after everything you've done to her and Lana, simply leaving them alone is the best, and only, thing you can do that won't make things worse, don't you agree?"_

But Lynn didn't respond, instead she went forth to the bedroom and closed the door, leaving Lucy hanging. "Lynn..."

And then the voice returned.

 _"Looks like you two have issues. Is there anything I can do to help? There are a lot of things I can do for you, if you want."_

"Leave me alone, voice in my head," Lucy requested. "I'm not in the mood."

 _"But darling-"_

"I said I'm not in the mood!" Lucy snapped.

The voice seemingly obliged, since it vanished without a trace in an instant, followed by Lucy looking back at the ground.

 _Meanwhile, with Lori and Leni..._

The duo, hiding inside the bushes, followed Luna and Luan as quietly as possible while having their walkie-talkies out. "Okay, we're following them now," Lori said to her walkie-talkie. "They just seem to be going to the location of their date, nothing stranger than that."

"Good work, girls, but you should keep going," Mr. Loud replied. "And if necessary, have one of you go into the restaurant to interrupt the date."

The duo kept that in mind, specially Leni, who got an idea as her neutral look turned into a malicious smile. Soon afterwards, the duo saw Luna and Luan enter a restaurant, upon which they decided to go to a nearby alley and discuss their plan.

Lori spoke, "Okay, so one of us has to go into the restaurant and make sure to interrupt the date if it looks like it will go too far... Who should-" and then Leni got up and walked away. "L-Leni, where are you going?"

"I'm going to be the bait to interrupt their date," the blonde explained with a shrug. "After all, as long as Luna and Luan don't go too far, who cares about our relationship?"

And soon enough, Lori got an idea of what was Leni's motive. "Leni... are you jealous?"

"Jealous? Oh no, darling, not at all," Leni chuckled. "I'm something far worse: I'm disappointed."

So the fashionista moved forward while Lori followed her. "Listen, Leni, if something is bothering you-"

"Nothing, is bothering me, other than you, Lori!" the fashionista hissed. "Now listen, I will go deal with the date and will attempt to interrupt it if it looks like it will go too far, while you remain here to make sure nothing bad happens, got it?"

"But, mom and dad told us we-" Lori argued.

"I know what they said, but I want you to stay out of harms way," Leni retorted. "So, I'll go inside the restaurant, check up on the date, and you'll stay here to tell mom and dad about our success once the date is over, got it?"

"But-"

"Got it?"

Lori, intimidated by Leni's glare, just wordlessly nodded before the fashionista gave her a smile and went forth to the restaurant.

 _At the restaurant..._

Leni went inside the building and took a quick look around to see Luna and Luan, sitting at the same table and seemingly having a pretty enjoyable time. So Leni decided to remain in the shadows for the moment, and continued to look in the meantime.

"So, I was thinking you could also sacrifice a big part of yourself, like give up the British accent," Luan said, looking to her left and right. "I mean, it's a nice try at it, but It's bleedin' clear I got the better accent."

"Well... It would be fair if I did that..." Luna remarked, though clearly implying she wasn't considering it at all.

"You're not even going to bother to do that, are you?" Luan asked, her tone quickly going sour. "Come on, Luna, I promised to not pull any pranks or jokes for our date, it's just fair that you do the same with your accent!"

 _"Huh, looks like these two are practicing their married banter,"_ Leni thought with an amused chuckle. _"I guess I won't need to ruin this date just yet-"_

And then Luna said, "Well, perhaps I could give it a shot..."

 _"Nevermind, time to ruin this date,"_ Leni thought with a grin.

Leni struck the wall and caught the duo's attention, before gesturing Luna to come towards her. So, seemingly forgetting she had something called common sense, the rock girl got up and went towards Leni.

Speaking of which, Carol arrived just in time to see Luna leave Luan alone at the table, giving her the perfect chance to go in-since she had already assumed her form-and pass off as the rock girl. Luan was pretty happy to see her, Luna that is.

"Hi Luna, you returned faster than I-" but then, she froze in place when she spotted the guitar. "W-Why did you bring the guitar?"

"Luna" didn't even try to explain herself, she just raised the guitar like she was about to attack Luan. This gave the prankster a good idea of why she brought the guitar.

"C-C-C-Conditioning?! Maybe... When I act outside of what you think is right?" Luan guessed, earning a nod from the impostor. "But Luna, I-I would never act like that! Specially if it involved a guitar to my face..."

"Luna" gave the comedian a smug smirk, as if to say "Of course you wouldn't" in the most demeaning tone possible.

And back with the actual Luna, the rock girl met with Leni, who dragged her all the way back to the alley. "Hey Leni, what's wrong?" she asked as Leni cracked her knuckles. "Come to think of it, what are you even doing here?"

"That doesn't matter," Leni replied in a threatening tone. "What matters is that, well, let's just say your relationship with Luan is bothering mom and dad."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked, though she clearly didn't want to learn the answer.

"Listen, mom and dad are worried that you may end up going too far with your relationship with Luan," Leni explained, placing her hand on Luna's shoulder. "Now listen, you have two options here: you break up with Luan in order to save both yourself and her, or you can continue your relationship, and watch it eventually crash and burn."

And in that instant, Luna realized something. "I left Luan behind!" she exclaimed. "We'll talk about this later, Leni, I have to go back!"

Luna immediately left and Leni groaned in frustration.

Back with Luan and "Luna", a waitress came to the pair's table and handed them menus. "Luna" basically ordered the most expensive food, and then sent off the waitress by slapping her butt. "Those are pretty dang expensive dishes, you know?" Luan pointed out. "How are we going to pay for them?"

"Luna" just pointed at Luan. "I'm going to pay for them?!" Luan exclaimed, slamming her fists into the table. "But we agreed to share our money to-"

"Luna" reached for her guitar and started to lift it. "I'll pay! I'll pay! I'll pay!" Luna desperately proclaimed. "But please, don't use the guitar!"

"Luna" smirked and put the guitar down. And once the food was served, "Luna" started to eat as Luan took the moment to ask, "So, why are you acting like this?"

The impostor gave Luan a serious, almost threatening look. "Look, you didn't act like this before we got here. And I get the feeling something's bothering you," Luan explained as she grabbed the impostor's hand. "You can tell me what's wrong, and I'll see how I can help you."

After not responding for a couple moments, the impostor put her food down, slapped Luan hard enough to send her into the ground, and then took her guitar and started smacking Luan with it, with the prankster being unable to do anything but shriek, "Luna, why are you doing this?! Did I say something? Do something? At least tell me why you're hurting me!"

Just as she got ready to slam the guitar once more, however, a familiar figure grabbed the guitar and caught the duo's attention. This figure was none other than the real Luna Loud, who not only gave Storge a furious glare, but held her guitar on her free hand.

"Hey, what are you doing with my girlfriend?" Luna asked.

Not getting a response immediately afterwards, Luna swung her guitar right at the impostor's face hard enough to send her crashing straight into another table. With that done, Luna put her guitar on her back, snapped the impostor's guitar with her knee and helped Luan get up.

"Are you okay, Luan?" Luna asked as she dusted the comedian.

"I think so..." Luan gave Luna a hurt smile right before asking, "But wait, if you're the real Luna, then who-"

But once the duo turned to see where the impostor had crashed, she was nowhere to be seen. "That little!" Luna hissed before handing some money to Luan. "Here's my money, pay what that impostor ordered while I chase after her!"

And as Luna gave chase, Luan looked at the money, then at the food, and frowned when she believed it still wouldn't be enough. So, of course, she chased after Luna.

 _Meanwhile, with Carol..._

The teenager ran across the streets, constantly shifting between her Luna form and her normal form. Eventually, she managed to hide inside a dumpster just as Luna arrived, took a quick look at her surroundings and resumed her chase, with Luan following her.

With her gone, Carol got off the dumpster and stumbled onto the floor when she got a call on her phone. She took it out and answered the call... with Ronnie on the other end, "Storge, good job, according to Eros, your impersonation of Luna managed to get Luan to think more about the guitars, and what Luna could do to her, thus slightly lowering their relationship or however this is said. Not a big success, but it's better than nothing."

Carol smiled before Ronnie asked, "Now, what will you do?"

The teenager looked around before she spotted a sight: Lori all alone, watching over her and Leni's motorcycle. This gave her an idea.

Carol stumbled to Lori, now stuck to her normal form so Lori would recognize her. And she was not happy to see her, "Ugh, what do you want, Carol?" Lori growled as Carol smirked. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm on vacation and I'm not in the mood to deal with your-"

The teen girl put her hands on Lori's shoulder, instantly unnerving her. "-Nonsense?"

A short chuckle later, Carol slowly shifted form to her Luna one as she whispered to her ear, "You are Storge now."

And not even a second later, Luna came out of nowhere and smacked the impostor right onto a wall, wherein she smacked her with her guitar and just generally beat her up. Luan arrived too late: what she saw was Luna brutally beat up her impostor, with the guitar clearly getting stained with more and more blood as the beating continued.

"Luna, for the love of god, stop!" Luan loudly pleaded, shedding terrified tears. "Your guitar's stained by their blood, you already did enough damage!"

Upon hearing that, Luna stopped and looked at her bloody guitar as "Luna" shape shifted back to Carol, who chuckled and spoke, though in pretty notable pain, "It's too late, for both of you. She saw you at your worst, and you revealed... what you will do to _her_!"

"What are you talking about?" Luna hissed. "I would never beat up Luan with a guitar!"

"Of course _you_ wouldn't... but the chips will _make_ you do it!" Carol mockingly replied. "And there's nothing you can do about it. You're nothing but a puppet, and you will do what you're ordered to do, and no opinion of yours will ever change that."

And then, the bruised teenager turned to the terrified Luan. "Have fun dating her... this may be the last time you'll get to be on her good side... before the bad side comes out."

And as Carol fell unconscious, Lori tried to process what just happened: what was this Storge that Carol mentioned, what the hell and in what trouble did she put her into?

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"So... how's everything going?" Lori asked, not even looking at her brother._

 _"Fine, I guess, Lisa just realized we haven't looked for Cristina and she's pretty dang angry," Lincoln answered with a nervous chuckle. "So, don't be surprised when she starts saying random nonsense on the way home."_

 _"I won't, Linc," Lori shook her head. "I won't."_


	15. Homecoming

_Back at the resort..._

All the Louds reunited in the living room, where Mr. Loud and Mrs. Loud-the latter holding Lily in her arms-spoke to their kids. They were all quite notably shivering and worried, as if they were terrified of what they were about to be told.

"Okay, now, this is what we're all going to do: We're going to go sleep, and tomorrow morning we will get our backpacks and stuff ready to leave the resort, and then, before midday, we'll leave this place, got it?"

The Louds wordlessly nodded. And seeing as this was the Loud family, seeing them quiet for once was something that occurred once in a blue moon. And with nothing else to say, most of the Louds went back to their rooms...

But then, Lori stopped and turned to see Lincoln nearby, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. So, seeing he was alone, she decided to go by side and lean as well.

"So... how's everything going?" Lori asked, not even looking at her brother.

"Fine, I guess, Lisa just realized we haven't looked for Cristina and she's pretty dang angry," Lincoln answered with a nervous chuckle. "So, don't be surprised when she starts saying random nonsense on the way home."

"I won't, Linc," Lori shook her head. "I won't."

The duo shared a couple laughs until it faded into silence. "How's everything going with Leni?" Lincoln inquired.

Lori looked away, her expression showing both discomfort and unneasiness. "I'm... not exactly sure what to tell you," the teenager remarked. "I mean, Leni herself has been... okay, but-"

"That's all I needed to know," Linc interrupted. "You don't need to tell me more if you don't want to."

Before Lori could even respond, Lincoln's phone rang in his pants and he soon checked it to see he received a message. He took a look at it and told his sister, "It's Lisa, she wants me to sleep with her tonight," then he put his phone back on his pockets and, swallowing his fear, bid farewell, "Bye, Lori, wish me good luck!"

"Good luck!" the teenager replied, waving her hand.

Lincoln returned the gesture as he left, with Lori grabbing her arm and looking away once more after Lincoln was out of view.

 _Meanwhile, with Mr. and Mrs. Loud..._

The couple gently put Lily down into her baby crib, while carefully caressing her head. "There we go, our little flower," Mrs. Loud said in a motherly tone as she took out a music box. "Now fall asleep and have charming dreams."

And so, as the woman played the music box, the baby grew entranced by the charming little tune it box played. This gave the couple a chance to talk without bothering the baby, at least as long as Mrs. Loud wound the music box.

"You know, while I'm really glad that Lily wasn't affected by the chips, I can't help but feel like she might end up being included in this mess before we know it," Mr. Loud said, with his wife rolling her eyes in disbelief. "I mean, all our children have been affected by the chips, so Lily-"

"Don't be ridiculous, Lynn," Mrs. Loud vehemently replied. "What freaking moron would ever try to mind control a baby?"

 _Meanwhile, at the Santiago household's living room..._

"Cristina, you freaking moron, I already told you we're not going to make special helmets designed to mind-control babies!" Ronnie growled while Cristina held the blueprints of such a helmet. "It's a completely worthless waste of resources!"

Cristina threw the blueprints away in a hissy fit.

"Come on, let's call Eros and check up on his and Storge's progress so we can go to sleep," Ronnie and Cristina sat on the couch and turned on a monitor, which showed Eros at the darkened room. "Eros, how's Storge's mission going?"

"Well, I got good news and bad news," the enigma wrapped inside a question known as Eros answered. "The bad news is that Storge wound up becoming very badly damaged during her mission. Luckily, for the good news, not only do we have confirmed that Luna and Luan's feelings have become conflicted, but we have a new Storge that is going to replace her."

This immediately caught the girls' attention, as they leaned closer and Ronnie asked, "Who is this new Storge?"

"Well, Carol didn't really tell me who this new Storge was, but she did tell me that the two looked alike, so it would be like she had never been replaced," Eros explained, scratching the back of their head. "Anyhow, I'm afraid I can't contact Storge at the moment, because she's being taken to the hospital, but don't worry, I'll make sure to pay her a visit tomorrow."

"Good, make sure to ask her who she picked as a replacement," Ronnie said. "We need to learn who, of all people, did she pick as a replacement. This conversation is over."

And so, the monitor turned off and Cristina and Ronnie both headed to the latter's bedroom. "Cristina, you have a home to return to, please leave me alone!" Ronnie hissed. "We can hang out tomorrow, but for now, I want to be left alone, got it? Besides, your mother is likely worried about you!"

And as Ronnie continued to go to her room, Cristina frowned at the mention of her mother, with the frown remaining as she left the household. Although, among the sadness shown in her face, there seemed to be a small bit of... anger.

 _Back at the resort..._

Most of the Louds slept at their rooms, except for Lincoln and Lisa, who once again slept on the couch. Lisa's glasses stood at the desk nearby them, so she was blind as a star-nosed mole at the moment. "Thanks for agreeing to sleep with me tonight, Lincoln," Lisa remarked, hugging her brother tightly.

"No problem, but seriously, why did you pick to sleep with me?" Linc asked, genuinely dumbfounded.

But Lisa didn't respond, she instead blushed as she hugged him some more, saying "You feel so soft" in a dreamy tone. The boy just brushed the girl's hair with a small smile. "Hey, Lisa, sorry for making you worry when I was hanging out with Lucy and Lynn," Linc said, scratching the back of his head. "I mean, I didn't expe-"

"Shut up, Lincoln," Lisa requested in the most polite tone possible. "Let's sleep in peace."

Lincoln smiled, returned the hug, and promptly fell asleep with the little genius.

For the remainder of the night, the Loud family slept without much trouble, minus some uncomfortable rolling around done by Luan and Lana. But nevertheless, nothing significant happened that night.

The morning at the resort, however, was something different. At the very top, Eros was woken up by a phone call and a video request coming from the monitor, the latter which he accepted as he answered his phone.

On the other end was Ronnie, who looked pretty dang grumpy. "Eros, did you seriously spend the night at the resort instead of going back home?!" the girl hissed, clearly furious at the guy. "That's not what we agreed! You were supposed to come back home once the business with Storge was finished, not stay at the resort!"

"Relax, Ronnie, I got everything under control," Eros responded. "Now listen, I got a phone call from... Storge?"

Ronnie went wide-eyed as Eros answered the call and spoke with the teenager, "Hi Eros, Storge here. I'm at the hospital, and I'm recovering at a smooth pace."

"Great to hear, Storge," Eros replied as Ronnie rolled her eyes. "Now, let's focus on the more important matters: you told us yesterday night that you appointed a brand new Storge, but you never told us who they were. Now tell us, who is the new Storge?"

Storge hesitated for a moment before finally answering, "It's Lori Loud."

The teenager hung up as Eros and Ronnie realized what she said, and just as Eros tried to call again, Ronnie stopped him. "Wait, Eros, don't even bother," she said, baffling the teenager. "This might be more beneficial than we believe: after all, Lori is with the Louds, so if we could convince her to be our mole..."

"Since when do you want this plan to succeed?" Eros asked, folding his arms.

"I don't, but taking into account the... alternative, it's the best option we got," Ronnie briefly shuddered before adding, "Now, I want you to try and get her attention: send her an invitation to the top floor, so we may discuss her role in the plan. Although, maybe we should wait until Cristina gets back so she can explain the whole thing thoroughly."

"Speaking of which, where's Cristina?" Eros pointed out. "She's usually by your side when we speak through the monitor."

"She tried to sleep with me, I told her to go away, and she did. She hasn't come back yet," Ronnie hastily explained with a wave of her hand. "But for now, let's focus on the important: send her an invitation, and make sure she goes alone."

And before the guy could respond, the monitor turned off, so he shrugged it off and got ready to write the letter.

 _Meanwhile, in... somewhere..._

Lincoln found himself in the middle of a grey, barren land without any sign of nearby lifeforms... or any life for that matter. It was probably New Jersey. "Hello? Is anybody here?" he asked as he took a couple steps forward. "If there's anybody here, say something, or make a sound!"

Suddenly, there were giggles.

"I guess that counts?" Lincoln remarked.

"It's all your fault," whispered a bunch of voices in the distance.

And, without warning, a bunch of shadowy figures-as numerous as Linc's sisters in fact-materialized out of nowhere and continued to giggle as they hissed,

"All your fault, and there's no changing that!"

"W-What are you talking about?" Linc asked, backing away a little.

The first pair of figures revealed themselves to be Lola and Lana, the former comforting the latter as she shook in terror. "Why did you bring that dang game, Lincoln?!" "Lola" snapped.

"I-I didn't knew it would do this to you!" Linc responded.

And soon, the next two figures revealed themselves: Lucy, holding a knife and approaching the boy, and Lynn, who desperately clung to Lucy's leg. "We're all forced to change, because of you!" "Lucy" growled.

The apparition swung her knife, and Lincoln narrowly dodged it as the next two figures revealed themselves to be Luna and Luan, holding hands and hugging each other. However, they didn't seem to notice Lincoln was there.

And the last two figures to be revealed were Leni, sitting on a chair and holding a whip, and Leni, acting as Leni's footchair. "And now, we will never be the same again, all because of you!" "Leni" stated with a smirk.

Suddenly, "Lucy" morphed into Lisa, leaped straight for Lincoln and swung her knife once more... and a sharp pain in his gut was soon followed by another... And another... And another...

Until another figure appeared and said, "Lincoln?" in a voice very similar to Lisa's.

And then, he woke up and found himself back at the resort, on the couch with Lisa-now wearing her glasses-looking worried by his side. "You're all sweaty, and breathing heavily," Lisa remarked. "What's wrong, Lincoln?"

The boy pulled Lisa closer to him and simply answered, "N-Nothing, just... nothing..." as he brushed her hair.

"Are you sure?" Lisa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm going to be fine," Linc said as he got up and went to the kitchen. "Anyhow, let's go eat breakfast and focus on our day, okay?"

Lisa hummed to herself, then shrugged it off and followed Lincoln, if only to figure out what was bothering him. And soon enough, they and the rest of the Loud family, still notably affected by the events from yesterday: Lola hugged Lana while the girl trembled at the presence of Lynn, Lucy ate her food in a gloomy way so nothing out of the ordinary then, Luna and Luan didn't even look at each other, and Lori and Leni focused on their food.

"Great, looks like you're not thinking about the other for once," Mr. Loud remarked, earnign a jab from Mrs. Loud. "Um, remember to pack your stuff before lunch so we can leave the resort, and try not to wreck anything in the process, okay?"

The Loud kids all nod in unison without saying anything. And arguably, this was far more troubling than if they were loud: I mean, the LOUD family, being quiet? That simply meant bad news.

But nevertheless, once the Louds finished breakfast, they went to their room to get prepared to leave the resort... except Leni, who's attention was soon caught when she saw a letter slid under the door. And, since nobody else seemed to notice it, Leni took the note and took it with her to the room.

She saw the girls packing up their stuff in the luggage, except for Lisa and Lincoln, who were presumably back at the living room doing the same thing. But Leni had no business with them, she simply looked for Lori until she found her and caught her attention.

"Hi Leni, what is it?" Lori asked as the blonde approached her with a stern look.

"It seems to be a letter for you, Lori," Leni said as she handed Lori the letter.

And as Lori took a quick look at the letter, Leni sat by her side and watched with a judging eye. The teenager then opened the letter and read it out loud:

"It seems you had an encounter with a particular friend of mine, so, since I believe you may have a lot of questions, please come to the top floor of the building in order to discuss the answers you seek. Come alone. XOXO, somebody who knows you."

Afterwards, Lori saved the letter on her pocket and took a deep breath before turning to Leni. "Should I-"

"I'm sure you're going to be fine on your own," Leni interrupted in a stern tone. "After all, perhaps it's just Bobby wishing to tell you about yet another thing he forgot about this resort vacation. Or maybe he just wants to waste your time by not talking with you through the phone for once. Or some other time-wasting nonsense that you wouldn't have to deal with me. Seriously, he's almost as stupid as me sometimes!"

"Yeah, no comment on that," Lori said, rolling her eyes before Leni gave her a furious frown. "And definitely no offense intended!"

Leni's frown turned into a smug smirk. And with nothing else to say, Leni continued to pack up her stuff while Lori got up and immediately went to the top floor of the resort, being watched by Leni until she left the room.

After that, she went upstairs to the top floor, consisting of a short hallway, a door at the end... and nothing else. Sure, there were the windows, but the staircase and the door were the only notable features Lori bothered to pay attention to. So she walked forward to the door, paying attention to nothing else... and then, she hesitated just as she reached the doorknob.

And so, she took the time to think: did she really wanted to go through this? The letter was signed by somebody that, as far as she knows, is somebody she doesn't know personally but somehow knows her. For all intents and purposes, it could be a trap...

Not that it mattered, since the door opened on its own and a hand shrouded in shadows grabbed and pulled Lori into the room.

Just before Lori could try to make sense of what happened, she found herself sitting on a surprisingly comfortable couch, with the sun rising on the horizon and sunlight entering the building, making the teenager block it with a hand as she saw there was another couch, though this one was shrouded in the darkness.

And then a pair of eyes opened on top of the couch. And then they leaned forward, revealing themselves to be Eros, still shrouded in the shadows. "Greetings, Lori," he said, clasping his hands. "It's a pleasure to see you again."

"Um, I'm pretty sure we've never met before," Lori replied.

"That's only because I'm in the shadows, that you can't recognize me right now," Eros then took out a couple of notes and checked them. "But anyway, I believe Storge, also known as Carol Pingrey, made you into the new Storge, correct?"

"Well, yeah, I guess..." the teenager rubbed her arm and looked at the ground as she remembered the brutal beating Carol took from Luna. "How is she doing? Is she... alive?"

"Yes, she's recovering, but she's no longer relevant to the topic," Eros handed Lori the notes. "This is the plan my boss wants you to help us execute, and as the new Storge, you will carry over the duties Carol would have done otherwise. Now, please read it."

"But what's this a-"

"Would you kindly read it?"

Pink electricity circled around Lori's head as her eyes briefly turned pink and she, having no control of her own body, started to read the notes. And as Lori read the notes, her mind was bombarded by worry and horror.

 _"Oh god, what just happened?! Why can't I move on my own?! All he said was if I could kindly read this thing and now I can't control my damn body! What did this asshole do to me?!"_

Fortunately, or maybe not, her horror soon shift focus to the plan instead.

 _"He and his boss want me to do what? To my siblings?! And Leni!?"_

Once she finished reading the notes, Lori regained control of her body and saw Eros waiting for her response. "So, what do you say?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No!" Lori shouted before she violently shook her head and continued to repeat that simple word in denial. "I'm not going to follow that sick pile of shit of a plan you have!"

Eros tried to calm her down. "Now, listen Lori-"

"No, you listen!" the teenager growled, leaning closer to Eros. "I'm not going to break my siblings' hearts just because you have some sort of, unfathomable plan that's a better alternative to whatever the hell you're implying!" Lori vehemently stated as she pointed at Eros. "So sorry, but I'm not going to follow your literally sick schtik!"

The teenager walked out of the room as Eros put his hand on his cheek and looked at the sun, seemingly in contemplation.

"It's just a matter of time, Lori," he said, in a tone implying...regret? "It's just a matter of time."

Soon enough, the girl went back to the penultimate floor, returned to her family's room and sat on the couch... unknowingly sitting on top of Lincoln and Lisa in the process. "Hey! Get your butt out of our faces!" Linc shouted.

Lori immediately got up and turned to see Lisa and Lincoln hugging each other as they caught their breath. "You could have told me you were there!" she stated in her defense, right before sitting next to them. "Good lord, I'm so exhausted. You two are lucky you didn't get affected by those chips, they're literally the worst."

And then the duo noticed something about Lori, which Lisa eagerly pointed out, "Did you just say literally incorrectly?"

"I guess I literally just did that," Lori shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

"You're turning back to normal too!" Linc exclaimed in relief. "Now you just need to showcase how much of an annoying sister you can be and boss everybody around!"

"Huh, those two things might take a while to come, taking into account my current relationship with Leni," Lori replied. "I'm literally subservient to her, and if I can tell you about it... well, I think there's something wrong with Leni."

This immediately got Lisa's attention. "What do you mean by that?" she asked as she separated from Lincoln and adjusted her glasses.

"Leni seems to be... I don't know how to put it in words, but she seems to have become... resentful. And jealous," the blonde answered. "Just a moment ago before I went upstairs, she insulted Bobby, and when we went to spy on Luna and Luan's date, she went on her own with a hint of resentment. She's also been stuck on a grumpy mood lately. Like literally grumpy."

Lisa hummed to herself. "That sounds problematic."

"Do you think the chips are doing that?" Lincoln inquired.

"I hope so, otherwise... well, Leni would never act like that unless she was forced to," Lisa scratched her chin. "If she's turning into a resentful grumpy bear as Lori is saying... well, if it's done with the chip, then we blame it, but if it's on her own... come to think of it, Lori, is Leni changing because of the chip or on her own?"

The blonde looked at the ground and sadly responded, "I don't know, guys, I honestly don't."

And then Mrs. Loud arrived and asked, "Kids, could you please focus on getting ready to leave the resort?"

The trio hastily nodded and they continued packing as the woman left satisfied.

So, one packing and long ride back home later, the Loud vanzilla finally reached the Loud house and got parked at the garage. With that done, Mr. and Mrs. Loud were the first to leave and take a breath of fresh, Loud house air.

"Okay, girls-and Lincoln-we're officially back home!" Mr. Loud exclaimed as he and Mrs. Loud got out of the car. "Now please, get out of the vanzilla in an orderly-"

Suddenly, all the Louds-minus Lily, who was grabbed and carried by Mrs. Loud-bolted out of the vehicle and into the house. "Manner," Mr. Loud finished with exasperation.

The couple went inside and saw their children head upstairs. "Stop!" Mrs. Loud shouted, making them all stop in that instant and listen. "Don't think that just because a whole week has passed that you can just jump back into that VR game. Specially, after all he problems it has caused us."

"Uh, what made you think we were going to play that game?" Lori asked rather nervously.

"Yeah, that's, like, a terrible idea!" Leni, like, added just as nervously.

"I'm glad you think that too, 'cause I don't wanna see you playing that game today, got it?" Mrs. Loud stated, with her children nodding in agreement. "If I catch you playing it... well, let's just say I'll get mad."

The Loud siblings swallowed their fears, hastily nodded in agreement and ran upstairs as fast as they could. And with that done, Mrs. Loud and Mr. Loud sat on the couch to relax, while Lily looked around and blew raspberries.

"Do you think they're going to listen to me?" Mrs. Loud asked her husband.

"You're the strongest and most authoritarian Loud I know, honey," Mr. Loud replied, placing his hands behind his head. "If our kids are going to undoubtedly listen to somebody, it's definitely going to be you."

"Maybe... Still, I can't help but feel like our kids aren't going to heed my warnings..."

 _Meanwhile, at Lincoln's bedroom..._

The boy entered his room and took a quick glance at his VR system before he went back to the door... and saw all of his sisters at the other side. "Uh, hi guys," Linc said, rubbing his arm with a nervous smile. "What do you need?"

Lisa promptly pushed her way across her sisters and approached Lincoln. "Listen, Linc, now that we're back from the resort, the fact that we're close to the VR systems could potentially end up being incredibly tempting, even after we know and recognize the problems that would be brought forth," she explained as she adjusted her glasses. "So, we need your help in distracting us from the game. Do you have any suggestions on what we should play instead?"

So, seeing as his sisters needed his help, Lincoln quickly reached for his clothes and desperately looked for something to suggest. Luckily, amongst the pile of comic books and mangas, the boy found a package of some peculiar beans alongside a row of true or false cards.

"Girls, I think I know what we're going to play!" Linc victoriously proclaimed.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"I certainly won't," Lucy stated._

 _"I'm not talking to you!" Lola hissed at Lucy, who remained unfazed._

 _"Lola, please calm down," Lana requested in a shaking tone. "Y-You're scaring me."_

 _"Okay, my little mud baby," Lola said in a motherly tone as she hugged and caressed Lana's cheeks. "I'm going to calm down so I don't scare you anymore."_

 _"And now you're creeping me out," Lana added._


	16. Game of Beans

The very next day, the first thing Lincoln did upon waking up was scavenge through his old comic books until he found a bunch of "True or False?" cards and a package of gimmick beans: they could taste good, or they could taste terrible.

Hopefully he bought them recently...

Surprisingly enough, underneath the cards and beans were another copy of the cards and beans. Linc didn't have time to think about it, though, since he got an idea soon afterwards.

So anyhow, once he did that, the boy left his room... and was immediately greeted by Lisa. "Oh hi Lisa," he said. "I got the cards and the beans to do the game. I was just about to look for our sisters."

"They're downstairs, eating breakfast," Lisa explained, blushing as she added, "We should join them, don't you think?"

"Yeah, definitely," Linc replied. "Why did you wait for me, though?"

"Well, I wanted to go with somebody for once, and since the rest of our sisters had already left by then, I figured waiting for you to wake up was the best idea," Lisa answered, adjusting her glasses.

Sure, that's the reason.

So anyway, the duo walked downstairs and went to the kitchen, where they saw the remaining younger Louds eating their breakfast, with two plates left untouched. Lola periodically switched between eating her own food and feeding Lana, who was still shaken from the events from the resort. Lucy, surprisingly enough, played with her food before eating it.

Lincoln and Lisa sat down and the little genius ate her food as the guy spoke, "Okay, so, I got a game we could play to clear our minds from... what happened."

"And what is this game you're talking about, Lincoln?" Lisa asked, sounding surprisingly interested.

Lincoln didn't reply in that moment, instead he gave Lisa a confused look, and the smart brunette blushed and looked away, with Lincoln doing the same as he searched for the game. Clearly, Lucy, Lola and Lana could see the atmosphere grew more awkward between these two.

"Well, It's nothing spectacular, just a bunch of truth or false cards with the answer behind them," Linc then showed the beans. "Now listen, here's the addition: these Bootleg beans. If you answer a question wrong, you have to eat one of the beans, and it can either taste good or bad. And because I managed to find a bunch of cards and two packages of beans, we can separate the older sisters from the younger ones."

"Please tell me you bought those things recently," Lana requested.

"You better have, 'cause if something happens to Lana-!" Lola hissed, showing her fist.

"Don't worry, the beans here are still good, though I don't know how I got it since I don't remember buying these-" Linc replied.

"Uh huh! I knew something was wrong with it!" Lola exclaimed, pointing at the beans. "What if the beans are a trap set up by whoever did the helmets, huh?! Maybe they'll mind control us, or even get us possessed by some mysterious demon once we eat them!"

"I'm so looking forward to this game now," Lucy remarked with utmost honesty.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, okay?" Lisa said, trying to calm down the diva. "How about we play the game first and see how this goes?"

The diva crossed her arms and looked away. "Fine, but don't come complaining to me when you, or worse, Lana, winds up possessed!"

"I certainly won't," Lucy stated.

"I'm not talking to you!" Lola hissed at Lucy, who remained unfazed.

"Lola, please calm down," Lana requested in a shaking tone. "Y-You're scaring me."

"Okay, my little mud baby," Lola said in a motherly tone as she hugged and caressed Lana's cheeks. "I'm going to calm down so I don't scare you anymore."

"And now you're creeping me out," Lana added.

"Alright, everybody calm down," Lincoln said, and miraculously, his sisters listened. "Here's what we're going to do: We'll play the game first, then she what happens next. Got it?"

The younger sisters all nodded in unison, with Lisa sporting an eager smile.

Things were not so cheery at the adult table, however: Most of the older Louds just ate their food, either only paying attention to each other every once in a while or focusing solely on their food.

And Mr. and Mrs. Loud quickly caught on.

"Is it me, or does this breakfast give you a bit of a deja vu?" Mr. Loud pointed out, putting a hand on his cheek. "I really hope it's just me."

"Okay girls, we can already tell something is bothering you, and we all know it's for the best if you just tell us what's going on," Mrs. Loud stated as she got up and folded her arms. "So come on, who's going to spill the beans and explain why they're upset?"

Lynn, Luna and Luan immediately looked away and tried their hardest not to look at their mother, while Leni rolled her eyes before turning away like a cheerleader. Lori, instead, simply ate her food and looked at it, apparently not even realizing her mother was looking at her.

"Fine, nobody wants to see me? I can deal with that," Mr. Loud growled before turning to Lori. "Let's start with you, Lori, what's bothering you?"

The blonde refused to respond.

"Listen, I know I can be an intense mother figure with an authoritarian might, but I have to be like that in order to keep... well, order in this big family," the woman explained, with Mr. Loud nodding in agreement. "Besides, you'll all have to tell us your problems eventually, so show your sisters a good example and tell us what's bothering you. Or even better, give us a hint."

After thinking about it, Lori caved in. "It's something that's been bothering since the resort," she said, and that's the sole hint she gave.

And this gave Mr. Loud a good idea of what it was. Most specifically, what it wasn't related to. "So, this is not related to the VR game?"

"No, it's... something far worse than that," Lori answered.

"You've been lurking on the internet?" Mrs. Loud suggested.

"No, it's... a lot less worse than that," Lori took a deep breath. "You see-"

"I don't wanna know," Mrs. Loud stated, surprising her sisters. "You've made it clear that it's something really bad, and since we're eating at the moment, I don't want to risk driving somebody sick."

"Uh, what's bothering me is just as bad!" Lynn exclaimed, raising her hand.

"Yeah, me two!" Luna shouted.

"Me three!" Luan added.

"Meh, count me as four," Leni muttered.

The mother of the Louds sat down and took a deep breath. "Okay, we'll leave the discussion for later, but we will discuss your problems, no questions asked," she stated. "Now, please continue eating your breakfast and act like none of this happened."

Going by her daughter's expressions, Mrs. Loud's request was something easier said than done.

And once breakfast was over, the Loud siblings reunited at the living room and saw as Lincoln settled down and, with Lisa sitting by his side, put the cards on the ground, the beans on a plate... and some chips on another plate. And soon enough, he also gave the older Louds a plate of chips, alongside their cards and beans.

"Why the plate of chips?" Lori inquired.

"Just in case somebody gets hungry," Linc went back to his younger sisters, cracked his fingers and took a card. "Anyway, who wants to start?"

As the younger Louds immediately had trouble deciding who would go first, handed her the card. "Death Valley is the lowest, hottest, and driest area of North America," Luna said before shrugging, "I'm going to say it's true. How do we figure out if we're right or wrong?"

"Turn around the card, and you'll get the answer," Lori explained as she spun her finger around.

Luna turned her card around and saw she was right. "Yes! No beans for me!" Luna exclaimed, lifting her fist victoriously.

Lori was the next to pick a card. "Tapas are common Scandinavian appetizers," she said before adding, with notable confidence. "I'm going to say it's true."

Unfortunately, not only did the back of the card reveal she was wrong, but Tapas are part of Spanish cuisine. Good thing Ronnie or Bobby weren't around.

"Well, here comes the bean," Lori took a white bean and saw what it represented in the bean chart. "Coconut or white paint. Okay, let's hope I get the right taste."

Lori's face soon scrunched as she screamed internally, trying to survive munching on the bean. Then she swallowed it as fast as possible, and she almost gagged on the taste left behind the bean, right before she grabbed her cheeks and she coughed.

"Oh gosh, that was horrible!" Lori exclaimed. "I freaking hate coconut!"

And while that happened, the younger Louds eventually allowed Lisa to have the first card.

"About time we started!" Lisa stated as she grabbed a card. "I bet my card will say something about intelligence, or science, or-"

"Michael Jackson's Thriller is the greatest-selling album of all time."

The little genius simply said true, then turned the card around to see she was right. She was not amused. "You know, it's good to have some fun after all that's happened," the little genius remarked.

And everybody agreed.

"Yeah, confused feelings, the... stuff I won't even mention," Lola said as she tried to reach for a card. "Let's not focus on that right now."

However, Lucy quickly took one card as she said, "Turning back to normal after treating Lincoln so... well, weird," she said before reading the card out loud. "Red flames are hotter than blue flames. I'll say this is true."

The back of the card said otherwise, and Lucy picked a random bean as Lana thought, _"Trying to help Lynn, only to end up molested by her..."_ and just as she looked at the ground, Lucy started to cough and pound her chest. "Lucy, what's wrong?"

"It's the bean," the emo clarified as she tried her hardest not to gag. "What tastes does a black bean have in the chart?"

One look at the chart later, Linc answered, "Grapes or carrion."

"I think I got the latter taste!" Lucy exclaimed as she started to cry. "How do ravens manage to eat this stuff?!"

And as the younger Louds helped Lucy not to gag, the game continued with the Older Louds.

Up next was Luan, who took a card and read it out loud. "Is a bird in hand worth more than two in bush?" the comedian thought about it for a moment. "Depends, are we talking about the avian bird, or the finger bird?" she averted the joke the moment she saw Luna giving her an annoyed glare. "I'm going to say it's true."

The back of the card agreed. "Yay!"

Luan and Luan clasped hands and rubbed their cheeks together as they said, "No Beans Twins!"

They quickly separated when they saw their siblings giving them "Seriously? Now?" looks. Leni bitterly thought, _"You drove Lori away from me at the resort, and I won't let you drive her attention away from me again,"_ as she took a card, then read it out loud.

"In America, you salute with the right hand," Leni scratched her chin as the sisters waited for her response. "Well, a person with average intelligence, who has lived in America for most of their life, and seen people salute every now and then, this question should be a piece of cake. Luckily, I'm too stupid to know any better, so-"

Without warning, the voice returned and spoke to Leni:

 _"I would say true if I was you. Trust me, it's for the better."_

The teenager looked around for the source of the voice, but just like before, she failed to find any logical place where the voice would be. Not only that, but her sisters gave her confused looks, with Lori and Luna looking particularly concerned.

"Is something wrong, Leni?" Luna asked, catching Leni's attention.

Once she returned to reality, Leni shook her head and said, "I'm going to say false."

The back of the card said the opposite, and Leni picked a bean as the voice mockingly said:

 _"Told ya."_

"Are you sure you want to eat that?" Lori asked.

Leni smirked. "I gave the wrong answer, so I need to eat this bean," and then she ate it and munched it as she added, "Besides, I'm probably too stupid to even notice what I'm eating."

A couple of munches later, though, Leni's face scrunched up and she shed tears as she whined, "I'm not dumb enough! I'm not dumb enough!" while trying her hardest not to gag. Lori gave Leni a helping hand in making sure she swallowed the bean, but in the end, the bean's foul taste remained in the teenager's mouth.

"That wasn't worth it," Leni stated. "Oh geez, I'll have to wash my mouth fifteen times just to try and get rid of this taste."

Lori soon picked a card. "Cell phones can be used to hack into anything," she read out loud. "As a proud and avid phoneholic, I say this is-"

She turned to Leni, who gave her a worried look, and then answered, "True."

The back of the card agreed, and as a baffled Lori tried to explain herself to a equally dumbfounded Leni, Lola's turn was next at the younger Louds' game. So she picked a card at random, while giving Lana a reassuring wink.

"The hope diamond is supposedly cursed," she read out loud, much to her shock. "What?! But it's jewelry! It can't be cursed! I say this is false!"

Well if the hope diamond wasn't cursed, then Lola's card certainly was, 'cause it said it was true. So, having gotten the question wrong, Lola took a green bean and saw it's taste on the chart. "Lemonade or Ur-"

The pageant diva gagged and flinched at the second taste, right before she ate the bean without hesitation. Surprisingly, the resulting taste was lemonade. "Oh good lord, yes! Lemonade!" she chirped in joy, though Lana was the only one to share her excitement.

Lily-yes, she's here-picked a card and right before she could eat it, Lisa took it and read, "Yolopoly is the game that builds friendships."

"Hey, I play that game sometimes!" Lola remarked, sounding genuinely honest for once.

"Yeah, I think I remember playing that sometime ago," Lisa added.

"It has to be false, then," Lucy argued with a smile. "There's no way a game Lola and Lisa both play could ever build friendships."

The card gladly agreed with the emo, whose smile grew wider as Lola gave her an angry glare.

And back with the older Louds, Lynn's turn was next. She picked a card, and read out loud, "A subway footling sandwich is 12 inches long," she then threw away the card and said, "Well, as sandwich extraordinaire that I am, I'll say it's-false."

The card said the same. "Yeah, no bean!" Lynn shouted, raising her fists victoriously. "It's amazing how kind the game is being to us.

"What?! Are you for real?!" Leni snapped, clearly thinking otherwise. "Out of all the players in this stupid game, I'm the only one who eats a bean?! I'm the only one who gets her mouth defiled by the grotesque taste of that bean?! I'm the only one who has her taste buds violated by these things?!"

Then, she started to cry as she finished, sounding distressed and worried, "I'm the only one who has to suffer!?"

"L-Leni, calm down!" Lori said, putting a hand in Leni's shoulder. "It's just a game!"

But Leni just slapped her away. "Easy for you to say it, your mouth wasn't assaulted by that horrible ta-"

Then, without warning, Lori grabbed Leni's cheeks and pulled her into a kiss, with the other older Louds looking in amazement... more specifically, Luna and Luan. Lynn just shrugged and said, "It was bound to happen."

Once they separated, Lori coughed to her hand and tried not to gag as she asked Leni, "Now you have someone who shares your pain, is that good?"

Leni could only frown in disbelief. And seeing what just happened, who could blame her? And the voice sadly agreed:

 _"Well, that went from zero to a hundred really damn fast."_

Hopefully the younger Louds heard none of that.

So anyway, Lana picked a card next. "Mud is used for aesthetic reasons." she read out loud. Then... she scratched her chin and thought about it. "Well, I heard about mud baths, and they seem to make people's skin... smoother, I think? I'm going to say it's truth."

The back of the card agreed. "Yay! No beans for me!" Lana rejoiced, throwing the card into the air.

"Thank goodness!" Lola thought.

And finally came Lincoln's turn. He took the card, and read it out loud, "Men wear dresses in some parts of the world." Linc put on a smug smile before saying, "It's true."

The back of the card said it was true as well. "Wait, how would you know if that's true, Lincoln?" Lisa asked, making the boy blush and look away. "Is there something you aren't telling us, Lincoln?"

But Lincoln soon retorted, "Well, are _you_ hiding something, Lisa?"

The little genius blushed and engaged in a staring contest with Lincoln, while the rest of the younger sisters just giggled at the sight.

For the remainder of the game, nothing much of significance happened: they picked cards, some got it wrong and some got it right, some ate beans and some saved their tasting buds. But most importantly, all of the younger Louds and Lincoln were at least having fun, specially Lincoln, who was very glad that his sisters were being given some breathing space.

And so, we skip to the night, where most of the Louds are asleep, except for two of them...

The first was Leni, who remained in her bed and looked at the ceiling as she thought about the kiss Lori gave her. Definitely not the one she would have wanted.

Instead of it being romantic, passionate, a good indicator of how good their relationship was, their first kiss was instead turned into a rushed, desperate way for Lori to be equal to Leni in something she didn't even want to in the first pace.

 _"Lori... why did you do that?"_ she mentally asked.

Then the voice returned:

 _"Perhaps you shouldn't wonder why she did it. Maybe you should... focus on how to make her pay you back?"_

Instead of annoying Leni, the teenager actually bothered to listen to the mysterious voice.

The second was Lori, who was also slightly stuck on the kiss, though it was primarily Leni's reaction that she was stuck in. Just as she started to think of her reason for doing it, however, her phone rang. She took it out, saw it was a call from Bobby, and immediately answered it. "Hello?" Bobby asked.

"Hi, Bobby, It's me, Lori," the teen said in relief. "You don't know how glad I am that we get to speak again-"

"Listen, Lori, I'll be straight and to the point for once," Lori was shocked at Bobby's words, normally he would be more than happy to waste hours talking on the phone. "I would like to invite you and your family to the Dairyland Amoosement Park next weekend. Just a way to relieve stress. If you accept, come there on saturday."

But Lori soon returned to reality and asked, "Bobby, how are you even able to arrange this stuff?"

"...We'll talk later, babe."

And then he hung up. So, with nothing else to do, Lori went to... Leni's bed. Of course, Leni quickly noticed this and gave Lori a confused glance, "Lori, why don't you sleep in your own bed?" she asked, though she sounded more surprised than angry at the girl.

"Well, I'm just kind of worried that I may have done some things wrong today with you, and I was hoping to let you know that I was sorry and would try to fix my mistakes," Lori paused before adding, "But I also need you to tell me what's bothering me, because you haven't told me anything about it."

 _"It's your chance, play tough to get."_

"That's because there's nothing to tell you," Leni growled before looking away. "The hints are there, and it's pretty obvious in the first place, you can't tell me you can't see what I'm implying."

"I don't see the problem, and that's why I ask you to tell me," Lori grabbed Leni's hand. "I trust you a lot, Leni. But you also need to trust me. And that includes telling me what's bothering you-"

"You're not focusing on me enough, you're focusing too much on Luna and Luan," Leni hastily confessed, though she still seemed to be holding back. "There, now shut up and go to sleep."

"But-"

Leni snapped at Lori, "What did I tell you?"

Lori gave the fashionista a nervous smile as she answered, "Go to sleep."

 _"Okay, now... how about you two have some fun?"_

And then, something that hadn't happened in a while did happen: Leni gave Lori a smile and caressed her cheek as she said, "Good girl."

Then, she got on top of Lori, who swallowed her fears as Leni grabbed the straps of her dress and slightly pulled them down. "Now, how about we make sure to do our first kiss right this time?" Leni cooed, licking her lips and leaning closer to Lori. "I brushed my teeth until the taste of the bean was gone. You brushed your teeth too, right?"

Lori flinched as she felt both her chest and Leni's pressing against each other, alongside Leni grabbing her hands with her own. "Y-Yes, I did that too," Lori answered, bushing and sweating as Leni leaned even closer.

And eventually, Leni and Lori's lips met and engaged in a kiss. Unlike the previous kiss, a rushed attempt to make things better, Leni made sure to let Lori enjoy some tongue-on-tongue action, which continued until Lori and Leni closed their eyes and decided to go with the flow, holdings hands all the way...

 _"Good girl, Leni. Good girl..."_

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"Lily, I got good news!" Lisa proclaimed in the middle of her and Lily's bedroom. "We're roommates again!"_

 _The baby clapped and giggled._

 _"I know, it must have been terrible to spend so much time away from me, but don't worry, your older sister has returned to bring you some of her intellectual attention," and then she gave Lily a boombox playing mozart. "Now hear some classical music while I go deal with... something important."_


	17. The Next Day

The next day came sooner than expected, and as the sunlight entered the room, Lori woke up and immediately looked at her surroundings. Leni was relaxing on Lori's bed, with her arms behind her head, while Lori herself was covered in a blanket, which she soon realized the reason as to why when she looked underneath the sheet.

She was missing some of her clothes. As in, all of them.

"L-Leni, what happened last night?" the teenager stuttered, covering herself as she blushed.

"Oh, Lori, my precious little cinnamon roll. We had an amazing night, that's all you need to know," Leni explained before she got off the bed and walked to Lori, bringing some clothes in the process. "But don't worry, I already got you some clothes to wear for today."

Once Lori was given and allowed to look at the clothes, however, she refused with, "Leni, I'm not wearing this!"

"Fine then, walk around the house bare-naked," Leni said, sporting a malicious, manipulative smirk as she walked to the door. "See how many jokes Luan can come up about it."

Unfortunately, Lori wasn't faced. "I can just wear my normal clothes, you know?" she pointed out.

Leni struck her head against the wall hard enough to shatter part of it before leaving. Sadly, though, Lori failed to remember what exactly happened last night, but it was probably not important anymore at this point. Not for her, that is.

Outside the room, Leni touched her forehead and caught her breath as the voice returned and spoke to her:

 _"So, how was the little quality time between you two?"_

"Something tells me hitting my head against the wall was a bad idea in the long term," Leni answered, right before she realized something: she had never wondered who the voice was before. "Who the hell are you, voice? Why do you insist on bothering me?"

 _"Don't be ridiculous, I bother everybody, I just so happen to be talking with you at the moment-"_

"Go bother someone else!" Leni barked.

 _"But I need to give you a warning-"_

"Piss off!" Leni ordered.

The voice seemingly obliged, since it simply fell silent afterwards, allowing the teenager to continue rubbing her forehead as Lori came out of the room and said, "Leni, I heard you shouting, is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, Lori, I'm just having a migraine thanks to all the stuff we've been dealing with," Leni answered, before adding with a regretful tone, "Sorry about what happened last night, by the way."

Lori blushed and stuttered "D-Don't mention it" while rubbing her arm. Leni blushed at the sight and looked away, since she had enough things to worry about.

 _Up next, on Baby and the Brain..._

Lisa took a small time to breath the air of her and Lily's bedroom, and luckily enough, the baby hadn't done anything to make it toxic. And, being back at her comfort zone-uh, bedroom-the little genius put her hands in her hips.

"Lily, I got good news!" Lisa proclaimed in the middle of her and Lily's bedroom. "We're roommates again!"

The baby clapped and giggled.

"I know, it must have been terrible to spend so much time away from me, but don't worry, your older sister has returned to bring you some of her intellectual attention," and then she gave Lily a boombox playing mozart. "Now hear some classical music while I go deal with... something important."

Lily laughed and rolled left and right to the tune of the music as Lisa sat down and started to write something. "Okay, let's see, what should I write about?" Lisa scratched her chin with her pencil until she got an idea. "I know! I'll write a thesis to disapprove "The Limits of Individual Plasticity!"

Then she raised her fist and stated, "Prepare to suck it, H.G. Wells!"

Suddenly, just as she started, the voice spoke to her:

 _"Greetings, I'm a disembodied voice. Do you mind if I accompany you as you write your little essay?"_

"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to have somebody nearby, even if they are a weird disembodied voice," Lisa answered. "Just don't creep me out, that's my older sister's job."

 _"Trust me, you'll probably forget I'm even here."_

So the little genius begun to write her essay, with nothing being capable of stopping her. However, after finishing her first draft, she soon realized something felt... off, about what she wrote. "Wait a minute, why do I meantion "Silky smooth white hair" during the polar bear section? Bears have fur, no hair!" she argued.

And that wasn't the only interesting detail she found:

"Unwavering kindness and self-sacrifice? Absolute loyalty?"

 _"Wow, polar bears sound awesome."_

"None of these fit with the animals I mention!"

Then, she put two and two together...

"But they all fit... Lincoln."

 _Meanwhile, with the twins..._

Lola brought Lana went to the backyard as the tomboy said, "Lola, why did you bring me here?"

"Last time I checked, you really like mud," the pageant diva explained before showing Lana a bunch of mud puddles on the ground. "So, I figured returning to the backyard, filled with all its muddy beauty, would make you feel better."

However, Lana froze in place and stared at the mud puddles in horror. After all, the mud reminded her of sports, which in turn reminded her of Lynn.

"L-Lana, what's wrong?" Lola asked.

The mud lover returned to reality and scratched the back of her head as she explained herself, "I'm sorry, but, after what happened with... you-know-who, I'm kinda... scared of mud, in a way," and then she tried to excuse herself, "So, I think I'd rather go back and do something else-"

But then, Lola grabbed Lana's arm and dragged her towards a mud puddle. "Listen, if you want to get this over with faster, you have to get through with your fears," Lola stated before gently pushing Lana towards the puddle. "Now hop into the mud puddle."

Lana slowly did as requested: first by touching the mud with the top of her shoes, then carefully entering the puddle and crouching until she finally sat down, wherein she caught her breath as she frantically looked around, presumably to see if Lynn was coming or not.

"See?" Lola remarked. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?"

And then the pageant princess dived into the puddle, wherein she put a hand in her twin's shoulder and pulled her closer. "L-Lola, I thought you hated mud and getting dirty in general," the shaken tomboy said in surprise.

Lola was quick to clarify, "I am, but hey, if it's to help my sister get through her problems, I can deal with it," and then she leaned forward with a serious look. "This is helping you, right?"

"Y-Y-Y-Yeah! Absolutely!" Lana hastily answered, forcing a smile. "I-I can tell that I'm recovering already!"

Lola smiled and looked at the scenery while Lana looked away, knowing full well she was telling nothing but lies. And then, to add insult to the injury, the voice spoke to Lana:

 _"Lying to please your younger sister, what a tragic, pathetic fate to befall an already traumatized girl. I'm surprised you're letting her boss you around, though."_

"What do you want me to do? Either I do this, or Lola drags me into doing it anyway," Lana told the voice... and got a look from Lola in return. "Um, I'm just talking to myself."

"Well, just remember something, darling," Lola said before hugging her twin sister. "You can talk to me anytime."

Lana couldn't help but wince at the suggestion.

 _Meanwhile, with Sports Junkie and the Duchess of Darkness..._

Lynn threw a ball repeatedly at the wall when Lucy came out of nowhere and asked, "What's wrong?"

This caused Lynn to miss the ball, which made it crash through the window and get stuck on the tree. "Lucy, seriously, can you please stop appearing out of nowhere?!" the sports fan requested. "Anyway, I... can't really tell you what's bothering me-"

"It's your deal with Lana, isn't it?" Lucy guessed, arms folded behind her back.

After a couple seconds of silence, Lynn answered, "Yes, but I'm not saying more than that!"

The emo remained silent, before noticing something in the shadows and walking to it. She then took it out... and saw it was the body pillow of herself Lynn used to... use. "You haven't gotten rid of this?" Lucy asked.

Lynn took a glance at the pillow and immediately tried to snatch it away, only for Lucy to block her sister with her foot. And then she calmed down, crossed her arms and explained, "I simply forgot to get rid of it last night, that's all!"

"Use it," Lucy suggested as she handed Lynn the body pillow.

"How am I supposed to deal with what I did with Lana with a body pillow?!" Lynn growed before throwing the body pillow away.

The emo tilted her head. "Should I ask Lisa to make a Lana body pillow, then?"

"That's not the problem!" Lynn smacked her forehead and hit the bed. "I did bad things to Lana, and now she's never going to forgive me!"

"I think I see your problem: you're focusing too much on Lana," Lucy said as she sat next to Lynn and placed a hand in her shoulder. "Lana's Lola's problem now, so how about you focus on other matters. Like..."

"Like?" Lynn asked, clearly growing annoyed.

Lucy blushed before finishing, "Us?"

"W-What do you mean?" Lynn asked, shivering in worry.

"How about we start a relationship?" Lucy suggested.

Lynn's heart skipped a beat as she felt a shiver up her spine. Lucy, wanting to start a relationship? With her? After what happened with Lana? Lucy wasn't the best when it came to social interactions, but this was simply beyond her usual social awkwardness.

"L-Lucy... a-a-are you sure you want to do this?" Lynn stammered, trying to recover from the shock. "After all we've been through?"

"I want to get you to focus on something other than Lana, and I think trying this out now that we're no longer controlled by the chips... it could be fun," Lucy explained. "But it'll also get us to stop thinking about our current issues, that's what's most important."

After processing, or at least, try to process the information, she was told, Lynn forced a smile and said, "S-Sure, let's do that!"

Lucy gave Lynn a hug as the sports fan internally screamed. _"Good lord, what did I got myself into?"_

The voice soon spoke:

 _"You got yourself into a short-lived fantasy. Enjoy it."_

 _"Screw you, voice,"_ Lynn mentally hissed.

 _Meanwhile, with Prank N' Roll..._

Luna played a little melody with a violin while Luan watched in wonder. It wasn't long before Luna noticed this staring, and she asked, "Luan, what's wrong?"

"Well, I rarely see you playing the violin," the comedian clarified. "Why don't you play your guitar?"

"I'm trying to refrain from using it, because of... what happened last time," Luna explained, rubbing her arm and looking away in regret. "Besides, I'm pretty sure I'm good enough to still make some sweet tunes with this baby."

Luna then proceeded to prove true on her own by playing a rather cheerful, energetic tune on her violin, which got Luan to tilt left and right to the rhytim. "Yeah, you got a point there," Luan said. "But, you don't need to ditch the guitar just to make sure I don't freak out."

This made the rock fan gradually stop playing her violin, with the tune growing somber and worried as she slowy ceased to play. "What?" Luna stammered.

"Well, you see..." Luan looked away and shrunk. "I... think you should play your guitar... regardless of whether I'm comfortable with it or not..."

Luna pinched her forehead in frustration. "Luan-"

"A-And besides! It doesn't feel like yourself!" the comedian exclaimed. "You're always so energetic, bombastic, nice-natured, and so on and so forth. And, most importantly, you tend to play a guitar! It just... you feel so different when not paying a guitar or being your usua, rock chick self."

Luna sighed. "Same with you, with the lack of puns and jokes and pranks..."

The duo froze in pace, sharing worried, slightly regretful looks. Cue the voice:

 _"Well, this is awkward. Perhaps you should try to lighten up?"_

The pair looked around for the source of the voice, before Luna told Luan, "I think I heard somebody. Did you hear it too?"

"Yeah, I did hear something," Luan replied, her look becoming worried as she failed to find the source of the voice. "But where did it came from?"

 _And finally, Lincoln..._

The boy relaxed on his bed and read an Ace Savvy comic book to try and focus on something else. But it wasn't long before Lincoln put the comic book down and

"Crazy stuff tends to happen when you have a family as big as mine, and the rise of weirder cartoons and TV Shows should logically make it easy to get used to weird stuff, but this is far weirder than the norm, and most definitely far weirder than what I'm comfortable with," Lincoln remarked as he turned to the reader.

He then got off his bed and went to his deck, wherein he grabbed a picture of Cristina and showed it to the reader. "To think that all this mess can be traced back to two sources: myself, and Cristina, the girl in the picture," he said, sighing in regret. "And ever since then, it's all gone down."

He sat down on the floor and put a hand in his cheek. "Before this point, my life was that of a normal kid: All I had to deal with was average day problems like buying groceries, going to a concert, or school in general," he recapped. "Now, I have to deal with a bunch of my sisters turning into lesbian puppets forced to be in love with each other, the fact that I have the blame for bringing the stupid game in the first place, and worst of all, I still have school to deal with!"

And in that moment, Lincoln and all his sisters-minus Lisa and Lily-realized something: It was monday.

They had _school_.

And so, Lincoln hastily got himself prepared for school and, once he was finished, he ran as fast as he could, passing by Lisa in the process. "L-Lincoln, I-" she stuttered.

"Tell me later, Lisa, I'm running late!" Lincoln exclaimed.

The little genius clasped her hands and frowned as she said "Lincoln" in worry. And then the rest of the sisters-minus Lily-all ran her over as they bolted straight for school, just like Lincoln.

"Ouch," was the only thing she said after everything was said and done.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _Soon enough, they reached Lisa and Lily's bedroom, where Lincoln looked around as the little genius asked, "What do we need to do?"_

 _The boy went closer to Lisa and whispered the procedure to her ear._

 _And in that exact moment, Lincoln noticed the Ronnie Anne body pillow. "Why do you have a Ronnie Anne body pillow in your room?" he asked._

 _"Well, I was going to give it to you as a gift and..." Lisa twiddled her fingers before shaking her head and returning to reality. "Whatever! Let's focus on what matters! So, that procedure is the only way to undo the chips' side-effects?"_

 _"It's the most accessible way at the moment," Linc shrugged and brushed Lisa's hair. "Are you with me?"_


	18. Heartbreak

_At the School..._

Clyde looked around the building when Ronnie approached him and leaned against the locker next to him. "Oh, hi Ronnie," Clyde greeted upon seeing the girl.

"Sup, Clyde?" Ronnie replied, putting her hands in her pockets. "Got any news from Lame-O?"

"No, but now that you mention him, have you seen Lincoln lately?" Clyde replied. "I tried going to his house, but nobody answered. Then I called him, but I got the same result."

"Well, a little bird told me he and his family went on a vacation at a resort in Aloha Beach," Ronnie answered without bothering to look at the boy. "Don't worry, they should be back by now."

"I need to find this bird you're talking about, sounds like they know quite a lot of stuff," Clyde remarked, placing his arms behind his head. "

Ronnie could only think, _"You might find her soon"_ with worry.

And then Lincoln arrived, followed by Lucy, Lana and Lola. "Hi guys, how have you been?" Lincoln said as he walked to Ronnie and Clyde, his exhaustion clearly showing in his body movement. "Sorry for not telling you I went on a vacation, Clyde, I... kinda forgot, what with all the stuff going on and such."

"It's okay," Clyde replied. "So, how was the vacation? Was the resort good? Did Lori wear a nice bikini?"

Linc immediately noticed the last question. "Wait, what was the last one?"

"Uh, just if your vacation was good in general," Clyde quickly corrected with a nervous smile.

Lincoln took a deep breath, "Well, it had its good parts and its bad parts-"

Suddenly, the bell rang.

"Oh, how sad, looks like we gotta get to class," Ronnie remarked before giving Clyde and Lincoln a slight jab in the shoulders. "Maybe you can talk about that vacation later."

And then, as she left, she whispered to herself, "Or, for your own sake, never mention it again" with a bitter tone. This caught the attention of the boys, who raised eyebrows.

"What's wrong with Ronnie Anne?" Lincoln asked.

"Really? You go to a vacation at a resort, without bringing her along or letting her know since she found out through some bird, and you can't see that question's already been answered?" Clyde replied, and soon enough, he and Lincoln found themselves walking alongside the rest of their classmates to the classroom. "Listen, Linc, let's focus on getting to class first."

So, once they were at the classroom, Mrs. Johnson sat on her desk and spoke, "Good morning, class."

"Good morning, Mrs. Agnes," most of the students said, outside of Cristina, who just nodded.

Speaking of Cristina, Lincoln gave her a firm look and focused on her exclusively as Mrs. Johnson began the lesson. Once Cristina noticed this, she just narrowed her eyes and gave Lincoln a smug, conceited smirk before opening her book and writing the lesson down, which made Lincoln quickly do the same so as to not catch the teacher's attention.

"Oh, by the way, Lincoln Loud?" Mrs. Johnson blurted, catching the boy's attention. "I want to see you after class, I have a special lesson to give you."

The class, predictably enough, started to laugh at the guy, with Cristina in particular cackling to herself while sporting a mocking sneer. But the laughter soon disappeared once Mrs. Johnson slammed her ruler on her desk hard enough to make the entire classroom shake.

"Less giggling, more listening," she ordered, and the students immediately went back to writing down the lesson. "Now, let's begin with some math. Trust me, the faster we get this over with, the better."

And so, the class went on with math and, a bunch of lessons and homeworks later, the class finished and Cristina was among the first to escape the miniature prison that was the classroom, with Clyde and Lincoln chasing her afterwards. Unfortunately, Mrs. Johnson grabbed Lincoln and pulled him back into the classroom by the collar of his neck.

"Mrs. Johnson, wait!" Linc said as the woman released him and then closed the door. "I need to go after Cristina!"

"It's about time for that special lesson I mentioned earlier, Lincoln," Mrs. Johnson said as she took Lincoln back to his seat. "Trust me, I'm pretty sure you'll find it to be a very valuable lesson."

The boy groaned and the woman immediately begun the lesson. What was it about, anyway?

The brain. More specifically, the frontal lobe.

"Uh, Mrs. Johnson-" Linc blurted, growing worried.

"Shush, Lincoln, and listen," Mrs. Johnson stated. "The frontal lobe is one of the four lobes in the brain, and a part of the Cerebrum, one of the three pieces that form the brain. It is the part that controls, among other things: Personality, emotions, behaviour-"

And as the woman rambled on about the frontal lobe, Lincoln noticed something interesting about the lesson: He was actually interested enough to listen to it. Not only that, Mrs. Johnson put a particular emphasis on the "Personality", the "Emotions" and the "Behaviour" that the frontal lobe was in charge of managing.

"Mrs. Johnson, what are you trying to imply?" Lincoln asked out of nowhere. "I mean, if the personality, emotions, and behaviour parts the frontal lobes are so important, then at least tell me why are you telling me about them-"

"Your sisters," Mrs. Johnson stated as she cleaned the drawings she made on the blackboard. "They're the reason."

Lincoln was surprised by the statement. But it wasn't a good enough answer.

"Okay, so they're the reason, but what do they have to do with this lesson?" Linc asked, tilting his head in confusion.

And then, Mrs. Johnson started to draw the heads of the Loud sisters. Each and every one of them, from Lori, to Lily, with some surprising accuracy. This only made Lincoln more confused.

She followed by drawing something intriguing: a frontal lobe in the Loud Sisters heads. And then, she drew a VR helmet, along with... a particular chip. She then drew a couple of arrows: one leading from the chip to the helmet, then from the helmet to the sisters' frontal lobes.

From there, Lincoln started to put the pieces together. "Wait, are you implying, that the chips in the VR helmets my sisters and I used..." Lincoln raised his eyebrows as the puzzle grew more and more clear, with Mrs. Johnson looking at him all the while. "They changed our minds, how we felt about each other... by primarily rewiring or altering our frontal lobes?"

The woman just nodded. And as Lincoln looked around and tried to process this information, his teacher approached him until she crouched down to meet him face-to-face. At this point, Lincoln could only ask, "How do you even know what's going on with my sisters, Mrs. Johnson?"

"Because, as Cristina's mother, I have to keep an eye on what she's doing, specially because of what she's been doing recently," was her answer.

A short silence followed...

"Cristina's your _daughter_?!" Linc exclaimed, nearly falling off his chair.

The woman just chuckled, finding the boy's surprised response surprisingly humorous. "Of course," she answered, folding an arm while showing Lincoln a picture of the redhead. "Don't you see the similarities?"

Lincoln hastily glanced between the picture of Cristina and Mrs. Johnson repeatedly, right before saying, "No! Wait..." a couple looks again, he got his answer. "No!"

Mrs. Johnson put the photo back on her pocket as she said, "Well, not all children look like they're parents. You should know that better than anybody else."

"Mrs. Johnson... do you know why Cristina is doing this?" Lincoln inquired, hoping to get an answer out of Mrs. Johnson. She was Cristina's mother, after all, she had to know something. "It's just that, I can't believe she's brainwashed my sisters into doing... these sort of things, and I want to know why she's doing this."

"Lincoln, trust me, if I could tell you why she's doing this, I would gladly spill all the beans," Mrs. Johnson gave the boy a sad, regretful smile. "But I'm afraid that's not something I can tell you. It's... nothing pretty."

Lincoln looked at the ground in disappointment. But then, what the woman said next caught his attention; "What I can tell you, however, is how to fix what Cristina has done."

And so, she leaned forward and whispered the solution to him...

 _Meanwhile, back at the Loud House..._

At Lily and Lisa's bedroom, the little genius tried to drag something into the light while Lily watched with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay, Lily, this might be the weirdest thing I'll give Lincoln, so I want your opinion," Lisa remarked.

She dragged with her a large body pillow, one as big as Lincoln himself actually, with the image of Ronnie Anne Santiago on both the front and the back side. "Do you think he'll like this body pillow of Ronnie Anne Santiago?" Lisa asked, dropping the pillow and catching her breath. "It took me a while to make it compared to the Lucy and Lincoln one, so I hope it was worth it."

Lily just laughed and clapped her hands. "I'll take that as a yes," and then, she heard the doorbell. "Oh, that must be Lincoln!"

And as she went downstairs, Lisa noticed something strange while she saw her watch, "Lincoln took a while longer than usual to leave the school. I wonder why that's the case?"

Once she was down, she went to the door and opened it, upon which Lincoln walked inside. Before she could even greet Lincoln, however, the boy grabbed her cheeks and pulled her closer to him, face-to-face, and stated, "I know how to undo the changes brought on by Cristina's chips!"

Lisa was left speechless.

But she soon returned to reality when Lincoln ran past her and went upstairs. She followed him as she asked, "Wait, Lincoln, what do you mean by you know how to deal with the chips?!"

"Mrs. Johnson gave me a special class that showed me how to nullify the changes the chips brought to our sisters!" Linc hastily explained. "It involves the frontal lobe, which controls personality, emotions, behavior, that kind of stuff!"

Lisa was quick to point something out, "Why would your classroom teacher know anything about our current situation, let alone how to deal with it?"

Once again, Lincoln couldn't help but hastily answer, "She's been keeping a watch on Cristina's activities because she's her mother, and no, she didn't tell me why she's doing this!"

Lisa was left speechless once more.

Soon enough, they reached Lisa and Lily's bedroom, where Lincoln looked around as the little genius asked, "What do we need to do?"

The boy went closer to Lisa and whispered the procedure to her ear.

And in that exact moment, Lincoln noticed the Ronnie Anne body pillow. "Why do you have a Ronnie Anne body pillow in your room?" he asked.

"Well, I was going to give it to you as a gift and..." Lisa twiddled her fingers before shaking her head and returning to reality. "Whatever! Let's focus on what matters! So, that procedure is the only way to undo the chips' side-effects?"

"It's the most accessible way at the moment," Linc shrugged and brushed Lisa's hair. "Are you with me?"

Lisa just nodded and gave Lincoln a smile. And then, the genius took out her phone and wrote a message...

 _Meanwhile, with Lola and Lana..._

The former tightly hugged the latter when her phone rang. She took it out, saw she got a new message and read it to herself.

"It's a message from Lisa," Lola clarified, making Lana raise an eyebrow, "Apparently, Lincoln found the way to undo the chips' side-effects-"

And then, Lana got up, grabbed Lola's arm and dragged her back home as she stated, "Come on, let's go for the cure! We got no time to waste!"

The pageant princess found Lana's eagerness to find out the cure... peculiar. Like she was desperate to get it, at all costs.

 _Then, with Luna and Luan..._

The rock girl tried to teach the comedian how to play the violin, and the prankster... wasn't playing it good. In fact, she managed to break a couple strings. "Hey, don't worry, I broke a couple strings back when I started too," Luna remarked, right before her phone rang and she checked the message. "It's Lisa, she and Lincoln apparently found the cure to the chips' effects!"

Upon reading that, Luan put the violin on the bed and the duo bolted straight for Lisa and Lily's bedroom.

 _And, with Leni and Lori..._

"Okay, Leni, you literally have to tell me why you wanted me to wear-" Lori complained, right before her phone rang.

Once she read the message, she showed it to Leni right before running out of the room, dragging the fashionista with her.

 _Cue Lynn and Lucy..._

The duo looked at a fancy dinner-like setting, with the body pillows of Lucy and Lincoln acting as Lucy and Lynn. "You know? Something tells me this isn't going to work," Lucy remarked.

The duo's phone rang, and after checking the message, they ran out of the room.

 _Back with Lisa and Lincoln..._

"Now we just need to wait until our sisters get here," the little genius remarked.

And then the ground shook. "They'll be here soon, I can feel it."

Suddenly, the girls crashed through the door and, as Lily laughed at them, they got up and asked in unison, "You really have the cure?!"

"Absolutely!" Lisa pulled Lincoln closer to her. "Lincoln here got a special lesson from his classroom teacher, who's been keeping an eye on Cristina's activites since she's her mother-long story-and she whispered the solution to Lincoln. Those are the good news."

The sisters cheered, except for Leni, who soon pointed something out: "Wait, if those were the good news, then what are the bad news?"

The cheering turned into horrified silence as Lincoln hesitantly explained. "Well, the solution itself requires the game, so everybody who has reached the first date have to play it again. Not only that, but to undo the chips' effects... you must get heartbroken."

The world just suddenly... stopped, for the sisters. After all they had gone through, after everything that they've endured, they had to do THAT in order to fully go back to normal? Talk about a dick move!

"You're crazy if you think we're going to break our virtual and actual hearts on purpose!" Leni hissed. "We had to work hard to get to where we are right now!"

But soon afterwards, one of the sisters raised their hands: Lana. She walked forward to Lisa and said, "I suggest Lola and I test out the procedure first" while the remaining sisters looked in shock, specially Lola.

"Why do you and Lola want to be the first to test the procedure?" Lisa asked, genuinely concerned.

"Well, it's more like I'm the one who wants you to do the procedure on both Lola and I," Lana whispered.

This only made Lisa and Lincoln raise an eyebrow. "And why would you want that?"

"...Lola, is watching over me, trying to help me deal with what happened with Lynn, but she's not helping me at all," Lana confessed, hugging herself for comfort. "She's creeping me out just as much as Lynn creeped me out before, and I don't have the heart, nor the guts, to tell her to stop what she's doing. So, I figure going through the procedure, and getting out the chips' influence, will turn her back to normal and leave me alone."

"You do realize she would still look after you, chip or no chip, right?" Linc said.

"I don't mind her looking after me, what I do mind is her... clingyness," Lana explained. "So, yeah, please do the procedure and get the effects out of her brainwaves or whatever so she stops freaking me out."

"In that case, all you need to do is put on the helmets, start your games and act as horrible as possible," Lisa explained, putting a hand on Lana's shoulder. "If you manage to do everything right, the bar should turn black and you should get minus % on it, which I never really thought was possible. Once it reaches minus 100%, you'll be freed from the brainwashing."

"Understood," Lana nodded with a nervous smile.

"As for the rest of you, as the only ones who never reached the first date were Lily, Lucy and I, and Lincoln, we'll wait for you downstairs in order to watch some cartoons," Lincoln explained. "You know, to make sure you get some levity after this... harsh procedure."

The sisters all nodded and left the room, except for Lucy, who went to Lincoln, and Leni, who gave the duo an angry look before leaving. With that done, Lincoln, Lucy, Lisa and Lily went downstairs to warm up the cartoons.

 _Lola and Lana's bedroom..._

The twins walked to their VR helmets, grabbed them and gave them a worried look before putting them on. They turned the game "ON" and saw their progress had been saved, so at least they could go straight for the last point they arrived.

The first to do the procedure was Lana, who reached her room and decided to go forth to Lola, who was posing... towards a mirror... in the Loud House.

"Oh hey, I'm glad you could come," Virtual Lola remarked upon seeing Lana's character. "I got a couple of plans ready for our next hang out, and I'd like to tell you about them."

Lana reached for her character's pockets, and took out a mud pie. Not only that, for some reason, her character had a lot of mud saved in her pockets. Hey, she might be known as the mud lover for a reason, but at least she knows what is right and what is wrong, and having mud in their pockets... was not right.

What Lana did next was something she knew she was going to regret: she splashed Virtual Lola with the mud. As the virtual character got up and dusted herself, the bar appeared and completely erased all of the pink in the bar, before replacing it with a black bar and -20%.

"Why. Did. You do that?!" Virtual Lola hissed, clearly growing angry. "Alright, I'll let that one slide, but I want you to apologize for what you did! Say you're sorry."

Lana's character remained silent as they threw another mud pie at Virtual Lola. This time, the bar filled up to 50%, making it clear this was working... a bit too well. Not only that, but Virtual Lola started to breath like a wild animal as she looked at Lana's character... and showed she was crying.

"After all we did together, after what we've been through, why would you do this to me?!" Virtual Lola whined, making Lana back away a little. "Well, let me give you a fair warning: if you keep on going... if you keep throwing mud at me... if you disregard my warning... you will regret it!"

But Lana knew she had no choice: by this point, it was either start again from scratch, or ruin the relationship completely, and the latter was basically the only one that was going to benefit her at all. So she took one last mud pie, and threw it at Virtual Lola... though it only reached up to -99%. But soon enough, Virtual Lola got back up and gave Lana's character a murderous look.

"I warned you!" Virtual Lola snapped.

What came next was a brutal beating that would be better left undescribed. A lot of things about Lola are left undescribed, so why not add the beating to the list? But one thing was sure: by the end of the beating, Lana felt agonizing pain, both physically and mentally.

"And don't ever come back here!" Virtual Lola shouted as she grabbed Lana's character by the leg, and then threw her out of the house as the black bar reached -100%.

The game suddenly cut to black, with the black void soon growing a shaking heart out of nowhere, which soon snapped in two as "Heartbroken" appeared in red, bold, bleeding letters. And then the game turned off.

Up next was Lola, who did the exact same thing and went to meet with Virtual Lana. "Oh hi, long time no see!" the virtual twin said. "Would you like to join me in the mud?"

Lola recoiled, but she knew what she had to do, she had to break Virtual Lana's break to turn back to normal. So, she took a deep breath, and spoke:

"Well, no, I'm not going to join you in the mud. In fact, I hate mud, and getting dirty, and dirty people like you. So, I want to break this off, because it's for the better. I retain my pure cleanliness, and you continue to be a dirty, mud loving girl whose only friends are fellow dirty kids."

By that point, Virtual Lana frowned as the bar turned black and it rapidly filled, but as there was no notification about it, Lola continued.

"And your own friends barely like you because of your dirt. You probably like girls, but none want to spend time with you. And the closest you'll get are your extra pets, who barely care about you as is. All they see you is as their owner, nothing more, nothing less-"

Unfortunately, the girl only just noticed the black bar, which had reached -100% a while ago. And then, it reached -101% as Virtual Lana started to cry, but soon wiped her tears as she got up and hissed back, "You could've just said no, and I would've gotten the message!"

And with that said, she ran away, leaving behind a mortified Lola.

Just like with Lana, the game cut to black, a heart appeared in the black void, and then it snapped in two as "Heartbroken" appeared in the same, bleeding font, followed by the game turning off, and the duo taking off their VR helmets.

This was soon followed by pink lighting surrounding the duo, right before landing on top of their heads and exploding into virtual hearts, which immediately snapped in two before vanishing from existence.

And then Lola turned to Lana, "Hey, Lana, how are you feeling?" she asked.

The tomboy just put on a pained smile and refused to answer.

 _Lori and Leni's bedroom..._

The teenagers took deep breath before starting the procedure, with them immediately heading towards their sister's virtual counterpart.

The first one to talk was Lori, who was approached by Virtual Leni, wearing a fashionable outfit. "Hi, baby!" "What do you think of my outfit? If you don't like this

"Listen, Leni," Lori started, pausing to think of a way to break Leni's heart in the most gentle way possible. "So, I've been thinking about it, and maybe we shouldn't hang out anymore. We had our good times, our bad times, but they have to come to an end. And... well, that outfit, it looks good but your overall fashion sense...leaves things to be desired."

"I don't know what you're talking about, be more clear!" Virtual Leni complained, placing her hands on her hips.

It was clear that, virtual or not, Leni was still Leni.

"Your fashion sense is terrible!" Lori snapped.

That sentence alone turned the progress bar black, and made it reach -50%. Virtual Leni herself, instead of looking horrified sad, looked more... angry, like she was about to be triggered. "W-What are you talking about?" she asked, clearly holding back tears.

"Well, I don't like your fashion sense in general, and I don't like where this relationship is going!" Lori stated, sounding like herself for once as she shed tears of regret. "So, I'm breaking up with you, right here, right now!"

The black bar reached -100% in an instant, and Virtual Leni, looking like she was about to murder Lori's character... instead slowly frowned until she cried and ran away, not even bothering to give Lori's character a goodbye.

Cue the black void and snapped "Heartbroken" heart before the game turned off.

Next was Leni, who immediately went to Virtual Lori and, without wasting her time, punched her in the face, like a boss! And the instant she did that, the progress bar turned black and reached a whooping -75%

"Why did you do that?!" Virtual Lori complained, only for Leni's character to punch her in the face once more.

"Now listen up, you obnoxious, useless, phone-obsessed brat!" Leni stated as she saw the progress bar slowly fill up, until it... started to shake? "All we did together, all the good and bad times, all we experimented, you may think that we were doing that as equals, but you're wrong! You are not my equal, and you never were!"

"What... what are you talking about?" Virtual Lori asked, sounding notably disturbed.

Leni's character grabbed Virtual Lori by the neck and spoke as the black bar suddenly turned navy blue, and started to drip tear-like... things as it rapidly filled up. "You, are beneath me! You are nothing more than a slave, a plaything that I may use as I please, got it?!"

Virtual Lori, despite crying and trying to grasp for air, tried to break free of Leni's grasp as the bar reached -90%. "Stop saying such nonsense!" Virtual Lori demanded.

"Oh please, don't act like you don't enjoy receiving demeaning words, you love it!" Leni stated with a smug smirk. "You're a bad girl, and you like to be punished, got it?"

Virtual Lori responded thusly by kicking Leni's character in the crotch and taking the chance to flee. "Leave me alone, freak!" the virtual teenager shouted as the bar reached -100%.

Cue the same black void and broken heart as Leni grabbed her crotch and chuckled, thinking, _"That was totally worth it!"_

And then the pair took off their helmets, followed by the same lighting spectacle Lana and Lola had. Although Lori's heart shivered before snapping in half, while Leni's heart... simply rot away. Afterwards, Leni threw away the helmet and approached Lori, before leaning forward and asking to her ear, "How are you feeling, Lori?"

"Regretful, but much better," Lori answered, dropping the VR helmet. "How about you?"

"I'm pretty good, Lori," Leni put on a smile. "Pretty. Good."

 _Lynn and Lucy's bedroom..._

Unlike the other sisters, Lynn was alone in her bedroom, since Lucy didn't need to go through the procedure. So she was alone in this, and as she thought about it, she turned on the game and went to meet Virtual Lucy... at the graveyard. To say this place would soon be symbolic would be an understatement.

"I'm happy we could meet again," Virtual Lucy said, flashing a smile.

If only Lynn were just as happy...

"Listen, Lucy," Lynn started, pausing before hesitantly adding, "I need to tell you something-"

"Before you say anything, I was hoping you could give me some pointers on this poem I wrote," Virtual Lucy handed Lynn's character a poem as she blushed. "I hope you can help me make it good. It's really special for me, and I want"

As Lynn read the poem, one thing was clear: it was directed at someone Lucy greatly liked. Probably even loved. Who it was, however, was left unclear, but it could apply to anybody: Clyde, Lincoln, even herself... but by this point, it was time to break Lucy's heart... and her own in the process.

So Lynn shivered as she slowly motioned for her character to grab the poem in a way implying they were soon going to tear it...

And Virtual Lucy started to catch on. "W-What are you-"

Lynn's character ripped the poem to pieces while Virtual Lucy, surprisingly enough, freaked out and tried to put the pieces back together in the middle of the poem rain. From this action alone, the black progress bar reached -95%.

"No, not my greatest poem! My romantic magnum opus! My... my..." even knowing that Virtual Lucy wasn't acting like the real deal, it still hurt. It didn't help that she soon spat, "Why did you do that?!"

Still -5% left. All Lynn needed to do now was add something to completely destroy Lucy's good image of her. One sentence, that was all she needed to reach heartbreak, and break free of the chip's effect.

And, unfortunately, she knew just what to say:

"...I hate poetry."

The black progress bar reached -100% as the disgusted Virtual Lucy took her destroyed poem and left. Cue the same heartbroken game over screen, and the game turning off. Lynn then took off the helmet, and as the broken virtual heart appeared on her head, she could only think:

"I'm sorry..."

 _Luna and Luan's bedroom..._

Finally came Luna and Luan's turn, and they both know that no matter what, even if they managed to end heartbroken in an instant, this was going to hurt. Hard. And it didn't help that they showed a lot of hesitation to boot up the game and put on the helmets.

"Are you ready for this?" Luan asked as she turned her game on.

"Let's get this over with," Luna bitterly said as she did the same.

The girls took their VR helmets and, exchanging nods, they put them on and went forth to their game.

First was Luan, who approached Virtual Luna... and before she realized it, she found herself in the middle of the Loud House garage, with a large collection of musical instruments on display.

"Welcome to my personal instrument museum!" Virtual Luna declared, joy clearly audible in her tone. "It took a while to make it, but I finally did it! A bunch of musical instruments, all hung up on the wall and in full display! But I didn't bring you here to tell you about this stuff."

Virtual Luna then grabbed Luan's character's hands and spoke, "Listen, we've been hanging out for a while, and..." Virtual Luna blushed. "Well, I soon found myself seeing you as someone special to me. Someone who could make amazing music with me. I think you're the person."

They would make music, alright. Just not the kind she, or even Luan, would ever want to make.

"So, how about we make some music together?"

Then came two choices: Make music with Luna, or...

 _Destroy the museum._

So, with great regret, Luan picked the latter option, separated from Virtual Luna and... took out a baseball bat. "W-Wait, what are you planning to do?" Virtual Luna asked, clearly worried.

And then, looking at the ground and shedding tears, Luan walked around and rampaged through the musical museum while Virtual Luna watched in horror, all while desperately trying to convince Luan's character not to destroy her museum. But no matter what she heard, Luan continued to destroy the instruments, until half of them had been practically turned into scrap.

However, once she saw the black progress bar, she saw it was only at -15%. It wasn't enough.

So she continued to break the instruments, only this time, Virtual Luna was left speechless. She just stood in place as she watched Luan's character destroy something she spent so much time working on. And then, when the remaining instruments were destroyed, Luan looked at the progress bar again...

-35%.

It still wasn't enough?!

She then went back to Virtual Luna, snapped her baseball bat in two, and then said the same thing as Luan: "I'm sorry, but, we can't make music together, It's just..." Virtual Luna, however, just looked at the ground.

Even without knowing if she was being listened to or not, Luan continued: "Listen, I can understand music is your passion, but that isn't the same in my case. I can't... I don't want to make music with you... and it would be better... if you just, let this go..."

Another look at the bar, and it was at -75%.

What else did she need to do?

Turns out, she had to pray to come out of the alive, for Virtual Luna took out her guitar and slammed Luan's character with it... in the same cheek where Luan had the guitar injury. And this somehow affected the girl in the real world too, since she immediately hit the floor after the hit.

And as the girl grabbed her injured cheek once more, Virtual Luna spat:

"And how does that give you the right to destroy my museum?! Seriously, I invite you to my house, I offer you to make music with me, and yes, I knew you were going to reject me! But I never thought you would do something like... this!"

Finally, the bar reached -100%.

And while the heartbroken screen appeared, Luan grabbed her injured cheek and tried her hardest to contain her pain, as she frantically shed tears and laid on the ground in agony. Finally, the same virtual spectacle happened on her head, only the heart shattered into a million pieces.

Up next was Luna, who found herself in the middle of a dark void before a pair of lights turned on: One aimed directly at her character, and the other revealing Luan, who held her Mr. Coconuts in one hand and a pie on another. She giggled a little before throwing the pie in the air, and then using Mr. Coconuts as an umbrella to block it.

"I see we got quite a special guest tonight, one that doesn't look too happy for some reason," Virtual Luan remarked, giggling like a little girl. "But never fear, Luan is here!"

Luna, however, didn't waste time and just went straight for Virtual Luan, right before clapping twice to summon the lights... which revealed they were in her and Virtual Luna's bedroom.

"I know doing stuff here in my sister's bedroom is weird, but hey, as long as someone winds up happy, it's worth the risk!" Virtual Luan argued.

Luna had other ideas. "Listen, Luan, I need to tell you the truth," she said, pausing before adding. "I don't find you funny."

The progress bar turned black and showed -10%.

"In fact, nobody thinks you're funny!" Luna added, shedding tears.

-35%.

"Whenever you make your jokes or pranks or stuff, they don't make anybody laugh, they annoy people at best, and outright hurt them at worst!"

-65%.

"And that dummy you carry around? It creeps everybody out, including me!"

Virtual Luan dropped Mr. Coconuts, who fell in a dark void where the sounds of a woodchipper were heard.

-70%.

"B-But... I make people laugh sometimes!" Virtual Luan snapped, trying her hardest to regain her composure.

But alas, Luna had a counter-argument: "They laugh _at_ you, not _with_ you."

-100%.

By this point, Virtual Luan was about to break down. With all of her pranks coming out of her skirt until she was fresh out of jokes, the virtual girl fell to her knees and looked at the ground as she shed devastated tears.

Nevertheless, she still managed to stammer, "M-My... F-Family-"

"Even they don't find you funny, Luan," and that was the final nail in the coffin. "I spoke with them, and they told me the truth: they find you just as annoying and unfunny as everybody else."

-200%.

And that was it. No goodbyes, no rage, it just cut straight to the "heartbroken" before the game turned itself off. And as Luna look at the ground, the virtual heart appeared on her head... and slowly, piece by piece, it broke apart until it vanished from existence.

When Luna took off her helmet and turned to Luan, however, she saw the teenager on the ground, still wearing the helmet as her arms and fingers twitched. Feeling worried for her sister, Luna ran to her aid, helped her get up and then took off the helmet... only for Luan to spit out a couple of broken teeth afterwards.

Then, she took a look at Luan's face, and not only had her injury gotten worse, but her mouth was bleeding!

"L-Luan, what happened?!" Luna asked in a panic.

"Your... v-virtual self," Luan stuttered, crying as she tried to withstand the pain. "She... h-hit me with a g-g-guitar... but why... w-why did it hurt me?"

"Okay, shut up for now, I need to get you to the hospital!" Luna grabbed Luan by the waist, kicked the door open and yelled, "Lori, give us a ride!"

This made the blonde go back upstairs alongside Leni, and they were clearly annoyed at being essentially ordered what to do.

"Okay, what's wro-" Lori started, but the instant she saw Luan's condition, she soon changed her tone for a horrified one. "Holy shit! What happened?!"

"That doesn't matter!" Luna spat. "We need to take Luan to the hospital!"

Lori and Leni both nodded in agreement and ran for the garage, wherein they got on the vanzilla and drove to the hospital as fast as they could.

 _Meanwhile, at the Johnson Household..._

Ronnie wrapped some gift boxes while Cristina looked at the window, arms folded behind her back. And then she chuckled, catching Ronnie's attention. "Excellent," the redhead said with utter satisfaction.

"What's up?" Ronnie inquired.

The redhead turned to the tomboy and, flashing a smirk, simply answered:

"Operation Heartbreaker was a success."

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _Lucy, Lincoln, Lisa and Lily watched a Blarney the Dinosaur show, with Lisa and Lily looking greatly excited about it, Lincoln looking neutral at it... and Lucy being barely able to stomach it._

 _"Can somebody please explain me how is it that a super intelligent 4-year-old likes this type of show?" Lucy questioned, clearly hoping somebody would justify the_

 _"Hey, don't judge my preferences!" Lisa argued. "If you were my age, you would understand what complexities I can see forming in this show!"_

 _"It's an Irish dinosaur, Lisa," Lucy flatly said._

 _"An intelligent, thoughtful, and kind Irish dinosaur!" Lisa vehemently clarified, crossing her arms._


	19. Break Into: Plan 2

_Royal Woods Hospital..._

Luna, alongside Lori and Leni, kicked the entrance door open and brought Luan to the nearest nurse around. "Quick, nurse! We need help here!" Luna exclaimed in desperation. "My sister's mouth is bleeding! She was hurt by-"

"Relax, lady," the nurse replied, before turning around and revealing herself to be Carol Pingrey. "Calm down and then tell me-"

The girl froze in place once she noticed who she was looking at: Four of the Louds, including the girl who beat her up and the girl she gave the title of Storge. Nevertheless, she soon regained her composure and finished, "T-Tell me what happened to her."

"My sis and I were playing with a VR sim dating game, when suddenly, Luan was hurt by the game version of me and then started bleeding!" Luna said as she handed Luan to Carol, only to grab her by the neck of her uniform and plead, "Please, nurse, please tell me there's a good doctor around!"

"C-Calm down! Freaking out won't help you at all!" the lady replied. "Please follow me, I know a doctor who can help."

The trio nodded and followed the nurse deeper into the hospital.

 _Meanwhile, with Ronnie and Cristina..._

The redhead and Hispanic tomboy leaned against each other while minding their own business. Ronnie played with a yoyo, while Cristina read a book about brainwashing, with a zoomed in eye on the portrait, in nothing but her underwear.

"And so, that's basically what I meant by saying that "Operation Heartbreaker" was a success," Cristina finished as she changed the page. "The Louds were heartbroken, and now they're unlikely to take relationships lightly ever again.

"I should have figured that something like "Operation Heartbreaker" would involve breaking someone's heart, but I'm surprised it took this long for it to happen," Ronnie remarked. "So, are you satisfied with how the plan came out? Can we stop doing these kind of things now?"

"There are still a pair of plans left before I'm fully satisfied, Ronnie," Cristina stated.

The Hispanic got up, and as Cristina slowly fell until she hit her bed, the tomboy shouted "Wait, what!?" and then she gave Cristina a furious look. "You just made me help you plan out that mess, and you still have a couple more to go?!"

"Did you seriously think I would just leave it at one plan?" the redhead scoffed, focused firmly on her book. "After what I saw, they need to see all the horrors for themselves. And for that, we need another plan."

Ronnie narrowed her eyes before jumping off the bed, folding her arms and saying, "Okay, Cristina, tell me what's this new plan about. Are you going to force them to cross a maze? Or face off against each other? Or maybe even do something dumb like play a sport against them?"

The redhead giggled in amusement before licking her lips, and answering Ronnie's question with a simple statement:

"Thanks for the ideas, but it's worse than that."

 _Back at the Royal Woods Hospital..._

Lori and Leni sat on chairs next to the room Luan was having her mouth and teeth fixed, with Luna-arms folded on her back and looking at the ground-walked back and forth in worry. "Relax, Luna, Luan's going to be fine," Lori said. "Carol told us the doctor she was assigned is competent at mouth surgeries."

"Yeah, I heard that Doctor Wily is a pretty competent doctor, specially concerning dental matters," Leni added, sounding motherly and kind for once. "Granted, his prince was a little steep, but it's worth it if he can fix Luan."

"I know I shouldn't be worried, but I can't help it!" Luna replied. "Just think about it, I hurt Luan hard enough one time, but now that she's been hurt twice, she's bleeding, she lost a couple teeth! Who knows what's going to happen to her?!"

Soon enough, the teenager and the doctor came out of the room, with Luan looking a little bit dizzy while wearing a surgical mask. "Okay, ladies, Luan can go back home with you now," the doctor remarked as Luna went to Luan's side. "Now, to make sure she recovers completely, she must refrain from eating anything solid: you must serve her solid or munched up food and, of course, drinks. She must also avoid anything that could damage her jaw."

"What will happen if she eats anything solid or gets her jaw damaged?" Leni inquired.

"Let's just say, she might end up breaking her jaw, and might require to use dentures," the girls gasped, except Luan, who was still too dizzy. "But don't worry, she only needs to go a whole week without either eating solid food or hurting her jaw, that should be easy enough."

"Thanks for your help, Doctor Wily!" Lori said as she and the girls returned to the vanzilla.

The doctor bid farewell and as Lori drove the vanzilla back home, Luna brushed Luan's hair as the teenager slept on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Luan, I'll make sure nothing hurts you," she said, hugging the sleepyhead.

Luan hugged back.

 _Back at the house, at the twins' bedroom..._

"A-Are you sure this is a good idea?" Lana inquired, sounding slightly worried.

"Absolutely!" Lola replied in reassurance. "Remember, as long as you remain safe from that treacherous... You-Know-Who, then this idea can't possibly be a bad one!"

Lana sighed as Lola placed her on... somewhere. "Well, okay, but I still don't understand something," she said.

"Ugh, what is it now?" Lola asked.

As it turns out, Lana was put inside a large bubble, with Lola about to close the hatch.

What, were you thinking they were doing something else? Perverts.

"Why, of all the places I could stay in to protect myself from Ly... You-Know-Who, why do I have to be inside a bubble?" Lana pondered.

"Listen, Lana, don't question my logic, just accept the fact that this is your best chance for protection against that... girl!" Lola growled before slamming the hatch shut. "Anymore questions, dear sister?"

Lana crossed her arms and sassed, "Yeah, how am I supposed to get downstairs now?"

"Well then, now you're asking questions I can actually answer," Lola replied. "Don't worry, my dear sister, your graceful, amazing, spectacular, magnificent-"

 _"Obnoxious, terrifying, spoiled-"_ Lana thought.

"And most importantly, humble, sister will deal with the staircase to make it easier for you to go down!" Lola victoriously proclaimed. "So rest assure, little sis, I'll deal with it! Just you wait and see!"

Once Lola was out of the room, Lana loudly whined. "I'm 2 minutes _older_ than you!"

 _Meanwhile, downstairs..._

Lucy, Lincoln, Lisa and Lily watched a Blarney the Dinosaur show, with Lisa and Lily looking greatly excited about it, Lincoln looking neutral at it... and Lucy being barely able to stomach it.

"Can somebody please explain me how is it that a super intelligent 4-year-old likes this type of show?" Lucy questioned, clearly hoping somebody would justify the

"Hey, don't judge my preferences!" Lisa argued. "If you were my age, you would understand what complexities I can see forming in this show!"

"It's an Irish dinosaur, Lisa," Lucy flatly said.

"An intelligent, thoughtful, and kind Irish dinosaur!" Lisa vehemently clarified, crossing her arms.

"I think it would be better if you two stopped fighting right now," Lincoln stated, catching the duo's attention. "Lucy, Lisa has the right to like whatever she wants. And Lisa, you have to admit it's pretty bizarre to see someone of your type liking Blarney."

"Got it," Lucy and Lisa begrudgingly replied.

And then, the door was opened and the quartet went inside, with Luna helping Luan stay on her feet. "Okay, Lo-Luan, we're back home," Luna gently told to Luan, who was starting to regain consciousness. "Now I just need to take you back to our bedroom and-"

However, the girls soon noticed something different about the staircase: it had been turned into a slide. "When did the staircase turn into a slide?" Lori asked with worry.

Realizing what was coming next, Leni snatched Luan and jumped away right before Lana-screaming as her bubble rolled around uncontrollably-went down the slide and clashed with Luna and Lori, bowling style. As that happened, Lola slid down and hit the floor before noticing Leni and Luan nearby.

"Oh hey, what happened to Luan?" she nonchalantly asked, as if she didn't even care.

"She got hurt thanks to playing the VR game," Leni answered, hugging the comedian. "I think it would be better if you left her alone."

Lola shrugged, and just as she shrieked and went outside, Linc, Lisa, Lucy and Lily turned around and immediately went to Leni and Luan's side. "Leni, what happened to Luan?!" Lisa exclaimed.

"Long story short: she got both her heart and teeth broken thanks to the VR game," Leni answered, rolling her eyes. "Now we need to make sure nothing hurts her for at least a week, otherwise she'll have to use a denture."

The kids shivered as Lola rolled Lana's bubble back inside, with Luna and Lori following soon afterwards. The instant she stopped, however, Lana punched the hatch open and left the bubble. "Forget it, I'm not staying at that bubble!" she growled.

"But what if Lynn tries to hurt you again?" Lola asked with worry.

"It will be a lot less dangerous than being inside that thing!" Lana took off her hat, pulled out a wrench out of it and put it back one. "Now help me turn this back into a normal staircase."

Lola nodded and the twins got to work as the older Louds and the rest of the younger Louds reunited. "So, how was the bubble?" Lola nervously asked.

Lana flashed a furious glare before returning to work. "Listen, I just put you in there because I legitimately want you to be safe," Lola explained, putting a hand in her twin's shoulder. "Since we live with the girl who molested you, it's only natural that I'll do anything to make sure you're safe."

"Then leave me alone for now," Lana slapped the hand away. "If I'm going to recover from what happened between Lynn and me, then I don't want your help. You'll probably just end up making things worse, like usual."

Lola gasped in disbelief. "When have I ever made things worse for you?!"

Lana refused to answer, and as the silence continued, Lola shrunk more and more until she asked, "L-Lana?"

"Get back to work!" the tomboy snapped.

The pageant princess grabbed some tools and soon got to work on the staircase reconstruction.

 _Meanwhile, at the kitchen..._

Luan sat on a chair and looked around as Leni and Luna made her something to drink, while Lincoln, Lisa and Lucy remained by her side. She took a quick look at her younger siblings, and she brushed their hairs while closing her eyes, implying she was happy to see them.

"So, how are you feeling?" Lincoln inquired, leaning closer to the prankster. "Does it hurt? You know, your injury?"

"Lincoln! You can't just ask that to somebody fresh out of the hospital!" Lisa scolded as she grabbed and dragged Lincoln away. "Pardon him, Luan, he can be a bit insensitive at times."

Luan gestured Lisa to stop, which Lucy soon clarified: "Luan says, please don't take Lincoln away, he can stay, I don't mind answering his question," Lisa stopped and returned with Lincoln as Lucy added, "It hurts, but I'm sure I'll be fine."

"You understand her gestures?" Lincoln asked.

"Yes, I figured that learning how to interpret charades would be useful someday," Luan then gestured something to Lincoln, which Lucy also clarified: "She wants you to come closer."

The boy got up, slowly approached the prankster... and then she pulled him into a hug. "Well, this was unexpected," Linc remarked as Luan tightened the hug.

And as that happened, Luna briefly glanced at the scene before shaking herself back to reality and focusing on her business with Leni. They were currently making a smoothie, and all they needed to do was to mash it up.

"Okay, so after this, the smoothie should be ready," Luna said before blocking her ears. "Luan likes strawberry, right?"

"Don't ask me, I'm just an airhead nobody pays attention to," Leni answered, her tone hinting at anger before switching to a genuinely worried tone. "Let's hope she does, though."

One loud mashing later, Leni served the smoothie-bendy straw included-and Luna took it to Luan. "To my Lo-I mean, Luan, here's a strawberry smoothie," the rock girl said as she handed the smoothie to Luan. "I wanted to make a chocolate one, but we ran out of chocolate. And I'll be honest, that doesn't surprise me."

And as the comedian drank it, Luna and Leni desperately hoped, "Please like strawberry, please like strawberry, please like strawberry!"

Fortunately, the prankster's blushing and moaning verified that yes, she did like the smoothie. Luna raised her fists in the air while Leni sighed in relief, and soon enough, Leni noticed something:

"Hey, where's Lori?"

 _Meanwhile, at Lynn and Lucy's bedroom..._

Lori opened the door and saw a perturbing sight: Lynn, on the floor, crying and sobbing while the VR helmet laid next to her. Feeling sorry for the girl, Lori tried to come closer, but the instant she tried...

"Please, don't come closer..."

The teenager stopped right on her tracks and listened as Lynn continued.

"You need to go away, before I do things to you. I hurt Lana. I hurt Lucy. I did bad things to them."

And then, Lori approached Lynn as sneakily as possible, while she continued to talk.

"I don't want to hurt anybody anymore. But I'll hurt them no matter what I do. Either by wrestling, or balls, or... touching-"

Lori flinched and stopped right there.

"All I end up doing is hurting those that I love. Even when I don't mean to."

After thinking about it for a moment, Lori sneaked closer.

"So please... leave. I need to be left alone. I... deserve to be left lone."

But the instant she finished, Lori crouched to Lynn's height and gave her a hug, surprising the sports junkie. "Right now, you don't need to be left alone," she said sympathetically before brushing Lynn's hair. "What you need is a hug."

Lynn grabbed Lori's hand, and held it, hoping that this time she wouldn't ruin anything. But she knew what she had done before. She knew that she could do that again. Any time. Any moment.

"You will regret this," she said to Lori, her tone dripping with fear and forced aggression.

"I got enough things to regret right now," Lori scoffed, tightening the hug. "I'm sure I can add this to the list."

Lynn was left speechless.

"Do you understand now, Lynn?"

Who knew Lori would take such a risk to make Lynn happy? And fortunately, Lynn didn't let this kindness go to waste. She forced a smile and closed her eyes as she enjoyed the moment.

"Thank you."

 _Back downstairs..._

Lucy, Lisa and Lincoln watched as Leni and Luna spent some time with Luan, who drank the smoothie alongside them.

"So, Lisa, I wanted to ask you something," Lincoln blurted, immediately catching Lisa's attention. "Why did you have Lynn get heartbroken, but not Lucy?"

"Taking into account how she usually acts, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't notice the difference," Lisa answered, and Lucy couldn't help but shrug in agreement.

"Okay, now let's be serious, because this is an important matter," Lisa added, adjusting her glasses. "Turns out, there is a way to unlock Virtual Lincoln's route, but to do so, Lucy has to play all the other routes and reach 100% affection with everybody-"

"I'll do it!" Lincoln proclaimed, startling the little genius and Lucy. "I mean, I think I should unlock myself, I've made a good amount of progress into the game."

Lucy smiled as Lisa retorted, "I'm sorry, Lincoln, but it's too dangerous: I mean, playing all ten routes to the maximum? It's insane! Besides, I think Lucy can play all the routes by herself."

"Who cares who does all the routes?!" Lincoln snapped. "We need to unlock my route before the chip's effects on Lucy return!"

"Before they return?" Lucy repeated in a monotone... tone.

"Don't worry, Lucy, I'm sure it'll be a while before those effects return," Lincoln reassured the emo. "For now, I'm pretty sure you're still yourself. And if you end up obsessing over me again, you can count on us to get you back to normal, got it?"

Lucy briefly smiled. "Yes... My Lincoln-"

The girl immediately blocked her mouth as everybody turned to look at her, sporting horrified looks. "That was, like, totally unexpected," Leni remarked.

"Oh no, the effects are returning!" Lincoln exclaimed. "What do we do now?!"

"Don't panic, Lincoln," Lisa put a hand in Linc's shoulder. "We just need to take her back to my room so I can perform a neuro-analysis on her."

"Neuro-what now?" Lucy asked.

"She's going to analyze her brain to find out what's wrong with it," Leni blurted, immediately gaining a bunch of confused looks at her. "Hey, just 'cause I lack a brain doesn't mean I don't know anything about it."

"Staircase's fixed!" Lana shouted as she and Lola went into the room.

"Good, 'cause we got to head up right now!" Lisa stated, earning confused looks from the twins. "I'll explain later, for now, we have to head upstairs!"

 _Meanwhile, at the Santiago Household..._

Ronnie walked to the door as she heard someone banging it repeatedly. Once she opened the door, she effortlessly blocked one last punch from Cristina, the girl who banged the door, and carrying a backpack.

"Okay, when you said earlier that you were coming to my house, I didn't expect you to come so soon," Ronnie remarked as Cristina went inside. "Why did you need to come here, anyway? Why can't I be the one to come to your house instead?"

Cristina gestured Ronnie to calm down, as if to imply that would happen soon enough. And while the girl closed the door, Cristina put her backpack on the ground and took out a laptop out of it. She soon boot up the laptop as Ronnie walked to her, clearly annoyed.

"Cristina, answer me! Why did you come here?" Ronnie demanded, placing her hands on her hips.

The redhead, however, simply focused on the laptop. "I mean, I know you can talk, I'm sure telling me why you came here shouldn't be a problem!" the tomboy hissed.

Cristina, instead of giving her answer, revealed to Ronnie the current status on the pairings. All of them said heartbroken, except for Leni and Lucy, the latter which was still in the "intermediate" stage.

"Wha-when did that happen?!" Ronnie exclaimed, pushing Cristina aside and leaning closer to the laptop. "I mean, I knew it was bound to happen, but-"

Cristina punched Ronnie away and then put some focus on Lucy.

"Okay, what about her?" Ronnie asked, rubbing her cheek. However, closer inspection revealed Lucy's image suffered a glitch between her normal self and the crazy, chip-affected one. "So, the chip's effects are returning. I'm going to guess that's a good thing?"

Cristina was about to nod, before tilting her head and doing the "50/50" gesture. Afterwards, she took out a note and handed it Ronnie, blushing all the while. And once Ronnie read the note... she saw it was Clyde's phone number.

So of course, she asked the obvious: "Why do you have Clyde's phone number?"

Cristina rolled her eyes before explaining:

 _-A while earlier-_

Cristina ran away from Clyde and Lincoln, at least until Lincoln was caught by Mrs. Johnson. However, as Clyde continued to run after her, she didn't get a chance to catch her breath. So she continued to run, pushing some students aside or towards Clyde along the way, up until she reached the gym, wherein she sat on the benches and caught her breath.

However, just as she got ready to run once more, she saw Clyde had already caught up to her. And the instant she tried to run, Clyde simply grabbed her arm and held it tightly.

Oh no! A girl's only weakness!

"Listen, I don't know what you're doing, but I get the feeling it has to do with the fact you're single," Clyde remarked, offending and confusing Cristina. "So, while my heart belongs to somebody else, I can at least give you a chance to enjoy a normal date."

And then Clyde handed her his phone number and released her. "Call me when you feel like hanging out or dating, whichever's fine,"

The boy left, and Cristina eyed the phone number with confusion... and satisfaction.

 _-Back at the present-_

"Lincoln has a weird friend," Ronnie said, with Cristina nodding in agreement. "So, what are you planning to do with this?"

Cristina chuckled and crossed her arms while giving Ronnie an amused look. As if she was asking if Ronnie believed _she_ was going to do something about it. Nevertheless, she took out a phone and flashed a smile as Ronnie got an idea of what she was going to do...

 _Back at the Loud House..._

All the siblings gathered to see Lucy sitting on Lisa's bed, hooked to a machine that analyzed her brainwaves, while Lisa watched the progress and results. Luckily, the machine was much faster than the previous analyzer, since it got results in a couple of minutes.

"What have you found out, Lisa?" Lincoln asked, glancing between the machine and the emo with concern.

Lucy just waved hello while Lisa showed Lincoln a screen showing a dark void, filled with poems, graveyards... and a small heart-shaped Lincoln. "A bunch of classical literature, some poem ideas, it seems that Lucy's condition is still stable."

"What's with the heart-shaped me?" Linc pointed at the Heart-Lincoln floating in the void.

"That over there means that the chip's effects are slowly returning," Lisa showed Lincoln a couple images: First was a normal Lucy with one Heart-Lincoln, then a slightly unhinged Lucy with 5 Heart-Lincoln, and finally a demented Lucy in a sea of Heart-Lincolns. "Gradually, more and more of those things will appear, turning Lucy back into her obsessed lover form. That will happen once the void is filled with Heart-Lincolns."

"Well, that's certainly troublesome," Lucy nonchalantly remarked. "How much time do I have?"

Lisa looked at the ground before hesitantly answering, "That, I still don't know, but you should be fine for a while."

This did nothing to cheer up Lucy. Then again, the poet was pretty downbeat in general, so what was the difference? Anyhow, Lincoln soon went to Lucy's side and... the girl quickly pushed him aside.

"I'm sorry Lincoln, but I'm worried not just for me, but for you," she said, her voice hinting not only fear, but remorse. "You saw what I did while the chip's effects were active. That is bound to happen again. And worst of all, I can't help but feel that the longer we interact, the faster they'll return."

"Actually, that's a very high possibility," Lisa blurted. "She was obsessed with you, after all."

"Well, with or without that possibility, I can't just sit around and see you being forcefully turned back into that crazy girl," Lincoln replied before grabbing Lucy's hand. "Lisa told me there's a way to unlock my route, which involves completing all the other routes. If you were to play my route, then break my heart, you'd be freed from the chip!"

"But who's going to unlock you?" Luna asked.

"Specially since most of us had to, like, get heartbroken in order to free ourselves," Leni added.

Lincoln turned to Lisa with a determined look, and as the little genius realized what he was going to say and tried to gesture him to stop, Lincoln turned back to Lucy and declared, filled with determination:

"I'll unlock myself for your sake, Lucy."

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _Cristina didn't answer, instead, she handed Ronnie a white gift box before jumping off the window and going on her quest._

 _Ronnie opened the gift... and saw it had a small Lincoln doll on the inside. She took it, gave it a longing, regretful look, and then hugged it as she whispered:_

 _"I'm sorry, Lincoln."_


	20. Merry Giftmas!

_Later that night, at the Santiago Household..._

The moonlight shined in Ronnie's bedroom as the tomboy watched with a disapproving look as Cristina put on a Santa Claus outfit, with a large bag behind her. Inside the bag were the gifts she wrapped by Cristina's request.

"Do you really have to do this?" Ronnie inquired, sounding both worried and angry. "You forced the Loud family to change who they are, made them incestful, and then got their hearts broken. What else do you have to do to them before you're satisfied?"

Cristina didn't answer, instead, she handed Ronnie a white gift box before jumping off the window and going on her quest.

Ronnie opened the gift... and saw it had a small Lincoln doll on the inside. She took it, gave it a longing, regretful look, and then hugged it as she whispered:

"I'm sorry, Lincoln."

And so, Cristina ventured through the silent streets of Royal Woods until she found the location she was looking for: The Loud House. Just like before, she climbed up the house and went inside through the chimney, definitely having an easier time entering the house than a certain red-wearing fat man.

Once inside, Cristina went upstairs and saw a couple of doors open: The doors lead to the bedrooms of Lori and Leni, Lola and Lana, Lisa and Lily, and Luna and Luan.

Just what she needed.

First, she entered the door to "Baby and the Brain"'s bedroom and once there, she saw Lily and Lisa were already fast asleep. But while Lily slept in her baby crib, Lisa slept on her desk among some papers involving something about the pairings between the Loud family, and what could be needed to deal with them. not only that, but the little genius slept in her normal clothes instead of her pajamas.

Seeing this was her chance, Cristina took out a gift, put it next to the papers and then took out a jacket out of the bag, which she placed on the little genius. Granted, it looked more like a blanket in hindsight, but the thought's what counts, right?

Also, just for giggles, she wrote both "RonnieXLincoln, OTP" and "CristinaXClyde, Sure, why not?" on one of the papers.

She left the room, closed the door and headed straight for the next room: Lola and Lana's. Once there, she saw the duo sleeping on their beds, with Lana shaking despite having two bed sheets.

Seemingly sad at the sight, Cristina approached Lana and took out a music box connected to a pair of headphones. She put the music box next to Lisa, placed the headphones on Lana's head and then played a quiet, serene music, which slowly but surely helped the tomboy sleep better until she ceased to shake, and put on a smile.

Cristina smiled as well as she took out two presents: One she gave to Lana, and one she threw at Lola. Surprisingly, this failed to wake up the diva.

The redhead went straight to Lori and Leni's bedroom, and she saw Leni sleeping with Lori. However, the way they slept, it made it look like Leni had complete grip over Lori: she hugged her as tightly as possible, with one hand seemingly reaching towards her butt, while the remaining one interlocked fingers with Lori's own hand. The two were also incredibly close, almost as if they were about to kiss.

Cristina's cheeks turned red as she stood still, watching in contemplation... before putting on a perverted smirk, suggesting she enjoyed the sight. So she simply went forward, gave a gift to Leni, and then left the room... just as Leni opened her eyes and saw her leave, without making a single sound.

Only two, maybe three, more rooms left...

 _Back with Ronnie..._

The girl hesitantly wrote down Clyde's phone number on the house phone. Just as she got ready to finish calling the number, however, she hesitated. Maybe Clyde didn't need to know? Maybe Cristina could do without another pawn under her hand? Maybe Cristina should do her own dang job for once?

But then, she turned to a nearby picture: one of her and Lincoln, enjoying a good time. It feels like it's been so long since she had some good time with Lincoln. And the picture was more than enough to remind Ronnie of why she even bothered to put up with Cristina's nonsense:

Lincoln's sake.

So she finished dialing up the phone and waited until Clyde answered with a cheerful, "Hello? Hello?"

"Clyde?" Ronnie asked.

"Hello, Ronnie, I'm surprised you're calling me at this hour," Clyde replied. "What do you need?"

"Clyde, I'm speaking to you in behalf of Cristina," Ronnie replied, rolling her eyes as she explained herself. "The best reason I can give you as to why she's not calling you is because she figured Christmas was earlier this year. But in reality, she needs you for her plan-"

"Then why do you call me and not her?" Clyde questioned.

The tomboy paused for a moment before answering, "Well, for starters, she's currently busy with something else," and then adding with regret, "And, I promised her that I would help her, and a Santiago never break their promises, so..."

"Okay, so, what do you need?" Clyde replied, seemingly buying the explanation.

Ronnie looked at the ground with regret. "I have a proposition for you..."

 _Back with Cristina..._

With only one more door open and the rest closed-yes Cristina was nice enough to close them-the redhead went forth to the last room: Luna and Luan's.

Once inside, she saw Luna and Luan sleeping on their beds, with no way to identify if the redhead was there... in Luna's case. In Luan's case, she had Mr. Coconuts acting as a sentry, and it wasn't long before Cristina noticed and hid as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, in doing so, she stepped on one of Luan's whoopee cushions, causing no only Mr. Coconuts to snap at the source of the sound, but it made Luna slightly wake up as well.

The redhead immediately covered her mouth as the sisters got up and got ready to approach the girl's hiding space. She had to think of something, and fast!

Speaking of the sisters, Luan stood behind her sister and grabbed her shoulder as she took out an instrument to act as a weapon. Thing is, she didn't take out her guitar. Instead, she took out her violin, which certainly surprised the comedian.

"Hey, you got to admit this is a _classic,_ " Luna argued, raising her eyebrows at the pun.

Of course, the prankster laughed at the pun while Mr. Coconuts didn't look amused, and shortly afterwards they headed to Cristina's hiding space to find...

That there were two gift boxes laying on the ground, with the redhead herself nowhere to be seen. And then they heard the door close.

The redhead, meanwhile, took a chance to catch her breath close to Lincoln's bedroom door. That was definitely a close one, and definitely more than enough reason to run away right there, right now...

But she still had something left to do. And most importantly, the girls would look for her soon.

She went into Lincoln's bedroom and closed the door shut.

She turned around and saw him sleeping on the ground while wearing the VR helmet. She gently took off the helmet, then placed the boy back in his bed, right before tucking him in and giving him a goodnight kiss. All while the older Louds banged the door repeatedly.

"Whoever is there, come out!" Luna yelled as she continued to bang the door.

Miraculously, Lincoln didn't wake up.

She then placed a present right on his lap... and then gave the VR game system a look, before flashing a devious look, while the banging got louder and louder, until finally, Luna burst into the room...

And saw Cristina had already left, with the window closing itself soon afterwards. Then, the redhead waited in the shadows as Lincoln and Luna spoke with each other:

"Luna? Luan? What are you doing in my room?" said Lincoln.

"We heard somebody in our room, then saw them heading here. We figured we should go there and kick them out," Luna explained.

"Well, I'm the only one here, so there's that, I guess?" and then Lincoln added, "Hey, look, a gift box!"

Cristina's heart skipped a beat once she heard the boy say that, although what he added slightly eased her worries:

"Well, It's really late and I want to sleep. So, I guess I'll just open it in the morning."

"Come to think of it, we also got gifts, and we were going to leave them for tomorrow morning too," Luna remarked.

Then, with a quick "goodnight" farewell, the duo left Lincoln's room and Cristina climbed back to the rooftop before jumping on the chimney. Once she managed to get back inside the house, she immediately bolted to the last room she had to go to: Mr. and Mrs. Loud's bedroom.

And once she went inside and closed the door, she put on a gas mask before putting a gift on the ground, opening it and watching as the room was filled with knockout gas...

 _Back with Ronnie...again..._

"And that's basically what Cristina wants you to do, and why she needs this to succeed," Ronnie finished.

Clyde remained silent for a while before finally answering, with a slight hint of sympathy, "She really shouldn't have used a laptop without an adult filter. But I'm sorry, I simply can't accept or even agree with your and Cristina's plan."

"I know, but there's nothing I can do about it," Ronnie answered, looking firmly at the picture nearby. "Either we try to make this work for everyone's sake, or-"

Clyde, however, was quick to point something that should have been obvious:

"You know this plan is bound to fail, right?"

This sole sentence rendered Ronnie speechless, not because she was astounded by his words or anything, but because Clyde, of all people, had the exact same mindset she had. Regardless of what Cristina tried, regardless of the help she could provide, regardless the sacrifices they could make for a chance at victory... their plan was simply meant to fail. When would it fail was the question.

"I know..." she sobbed, tears falling down her cheek as she continued, "I just wish Cristina could see that too..."

After another short silence, Clyde blurted:

"I'll help."

And this immediately got Ronnie's attention. "What?"

"I don't agree, nor accept Cristina's approach to this plan, but I can see you're only following her orders for Lincoln's sake," Clyde argued, and Ronnie smiled at seeing Clyde was a decent judge of character. Not the best, but not the worst. "So, just for your and Linc's sake, I'll help you and Cristina with this plan, but on one condition: We'll leave Lincoln alone."

"I sure hope you mean all three of us, 'cause I get the feeling Cristina will hurt Lincoln otherwise," Ronnie argued, before saying, with sincere happiness, "But, I'll convince her, don't worry. Thank you, Clyde."

"No problem."

Ronnie hung the phone and, in that exact moment, Cristina returned with a... large bag. "Cristina, I got good news, Clyde agreed to work with us," Ronnie told the redhead. "But it has to be under one condition: That we, which includes you, won't hurt Lincoln."

Cristina nodded and gestured that she promised to follow that condition.

"Okay, let's go to slee-" Ronnie said with a yawn, right before she noticed the bag. "W-What's in the bag?"

The redhead shot a glare at Ronnie and gestured her to leave, for she had to talk with Clyde.

And as the tomboy went to her bedroom, Cristina smirked, as if she had found a loophole to the very specific condition proposed by Clyde. She then put the bag on the ground, grabbed the phone and called Clyde.

"Hello?" greeted the boy.

"Clyde, this is Cristina-" the redhead replied.

"Oh my gosh, you can actually talk!" Clyde exclaimed.

A short pause and one incredulous look from Cristina later, the boy added, "Sorry, I've never heard you talk before, so-"

"That doesn't matter right now," Cristina stated, glancing at the large bag. "Listen up, Blackie, I have a job for you and I want you to do it to the letter..."

 _Meanwhile, with Ronnie Anne..._

The girl rested on her bed, holding the Lincoln doll and brushing his hair while looking at the moon with a look of regret. First, she joins Cristina in helping her reach whatever endgame she has. And now, there was not one, but two more plans of hers that she would need to help her with. As she thought about it, she looked at the Lincoln doll, whose permanent smile did nothing to ease Ronnie's worries.

"Why did I agree to help her?" Ronnie thought, hugging the doll. "Why did I blindly decide to promise her anything?"

 _A long time ago..._

A mortified Ronnie and Cristina sat at the Johnson Household, with Cristina hugging and crying her heart out on Ronnie's chest, while the girl tried her best to remain calm and comfort Cristina. However, from her soulless eyes and shivering body movements, it was clear she was just as affected as Cristina from what she saw.

 _"Why did they do that to Lincoln... to Bobby... to me?"_ Ronnie thought, trying to hold back her tears. "Is there really people capable of twisting the truth so hard, just to get what they wanted?"

"You don't know how glad I am to have you by my side, Ronnie," Cristina remarked as she finished crying and separated from Ronnie. "Mom never comforted me, she just... scolded me and warned me that if I used her laptop again, she would beat me up even harder."

"T-To be f-fair, y-you were using it w-without permission," Ronnie argued. "You're the one to blame for... seeing "that" before we were prepared."

The redhead flinched, but soon regained her composure. "Perhaps... but that's not the point," she replied. "I just wish there was a way to get some payback. To avenge the ones who have been twisted into shadows of their former selves."

Ronnie looked at the ground, wishing for the exact same thing. And then, without warning, Cristina turned to Ronnie and said, "Hey, I got an idea! Let's do something like that!"

"Do something like what?" the tomboy inquired.

"Let's gather some people who share our pain, and let's avenge the people who were twisted!" Cristina explained, grabbing and interlocking fingers with Ronnie. "Lincoln, Bobby, mom, you, me, we'll avenge everyone! Once we finish, the people who changed us will pay, and we'll let them know the error of their ways! Please Ronnie Anne, promise me you'll help me deal with those jerks!"

Since this is taking place in the past, I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

"A Santiago never breaks a promise, so I would never promise something I won't be able to do," Ronnie replied, and she immediately clarified once she saw Cristina was on the verge of crying. "But in this case, I'll do the best I can. I honestly think those people should pay, and if what you say is true, then I want to make it happen. Avenge the twisted: Lincoln, Bobby... us..."

Relieved at the answer, Cristina smiled, and then rubbed noses with Ronnie while giggling.

 _Back at the present..._

"Why didn't I think about it first?!" Ronnie whined, slamming her fists on her bed as she shed tears. "Why didn't I ask her to give me some time?!"

Then, as the girl continued to attack her bed, Bobby walked into the room and went to her side. The girl immediately calmed down once she was approached by her older brother.

"I heard somebody throwing a tanthrum, and since Cristina is busy downstairs, I figured it would be you," Bobby explained, brushing Ronnie's hair and wiping her tears. "What's wrong, Ronnie?"

"I'm having second thoughts about his whole "help Cristina get revenge" deal," Ronnie answered, hiding her Lincoln doll. "I just can't help but get the feeling I made a terrible mistake when I made that promise to Cristina. What do you think, Bobby?"

"What I've told you before is what I'll tell you right now, I'm effectively neutral about the whole deal," Bobby answered. "I honestly think it would be far better to leave those people alone until they start getting too dangerous, and then do something about it, but your friend doesn't work that way. In fact, I'm still having trouble figuring out how your friend thinks."

"Heh, you always had trouble reading how girls acted," Ronnie joked. "That's why you used to date Lori, you could actually tell what she was doing most of the time."

"You know I love her for more than that," Bobby stated, brushing Ronnis' hair some more. "But what I mean is, when it comes to your friend, she just doesn't seem to think the way normal people do. It's almost as if her mind worked differently than the average human. But anyway, are you feeling good now? I can stay if you need help sleeping."

"I'm good, thank you," Ronnie answered.

With that said and done, Bobby left the room, and Ronnie took another look at her Lincoln doll before falling asleep... or at least, try to fall asleep. For as much as she tried, the tomboy had a very difficult time getting to take a snooze. So, she got an idea: Maybe she could make some plans to hang out with the Louds. Just 'cause she was partially... probably... minorly... somewhat responsible for their pain, that didn't mean they'd want to kill her.

Right?

So she grabbed her desk's phone and dialed the number of the Loud house. "It's very unlikely any of them will be awake, but it doesn't hurt to try," Ronnie remarked.

Then, when the voiceover responded, Ronnie promptly sent her message:

"Hey La-...Lincoln. It's Ronnie Anne. Hey, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I hung out with any of your sisters? Lana, Lola, Lynn, anybody is fine. I just need to take a bit of a break from what's happening right now-don't ask me about it-and I would like to talk with another girl. Not that I have any issue talking with you, but since you already got a lot to deal with, I don't wanna be another pest. So, respond when you can."

With that said and done, Ronnie hung the phone, tucked herself... and was then promptly joined by Cristina, who had swapped the Santa Claus outfit for blue pajamas. "Cristina?! What are you still doing here?" Ronnie inquired. "Aren't you done with your discount Santa Claus business?"

"Cristina Claus!" the redhead vehemently corrected. "And yes, I did that, I gave Clyde his mission, but I can't exactly go back home due to... unforeseen consequences. So, I decided to spend the night here."

"What if your mom gets worried?" Ronnie pointed out.

"I called her to let her know I was going to stay for a sleepover," the redhead explained, rolling her eyes. "And when she tried to order me to return home this instant, I told her to piss off and hung the phone."

Ronnie wasn't fooled.

"Okay, I told her I was staying regardless of her opinions, and then I hung the phone," the redhead corrected.

The tomboy looked away with worry, which the redhead immediately noticed. "What's bothering you?" she asked.

After thinking about it for a moment, Ronnie spilled the beans.

"Well, I just sent La-" Ronnie immediately paused when she saw Cristina shoot her a glare. "Lincoln," with Cristina smiling in approval and seemingly calming down, Ronnie continued. "A message asking if he wouldn't mind if I hung out with his sisters. You don't mind if I do that, do you?"

"Of course not! It's your decision, after all," the redhead chirped, right before her tone instantly turned into a serious one. "As long as you don't hang out with Luan, that is. 'Cause you remember what the truth revealed about her, right? What she will do to you, if you so much look at Lincoln funny? Or maybe even what she will do without being provoked? Do you remember that?"

The tomboy nodded and nervously looked away once more, trying to catch her breath from the memories.

And then gave Ronnie a sly smile before adding, "By the way, I don't think I've told you this before, but you know what? I think you're really cute."

Ronnie blinked twice before Cristina clarified, in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone, "I meant as a friend, Ronnie."

"Oh, right, as a friend, totally platonic," the tomboy answered, sheepishly forcing a smile.

"But I do love you," Cristina added with sultry tone.

Ronnie quickly caught on. "Wait, what?"

"As a friend, Ronnie!" Cristina stated, this time sounding angry at the girl.

The tomboy didn't even respond, she just closed her eyes and tried to sleep. Then Cristina leaned closer to her ear and whispered, "I'll do lesbian intercourse with you while you sleep, okay?"

Ronnie sprung awake and shouted, "The heck is wrong with you?!"

"As a friend, Ronnie!" Cristina stated, once again angry at the girl. "Seriously, it's almost as if your mind was in the gutter longer than mine was. Go to sleep already, would ya?"

"How's tha-" but Ronnie quickly gave up. "Nevermind, I'm not in the mood for migraines, let's just go to sleep."

Cristina nodded, and the duo promptly fell asleep... with Cristina gaining a wide, malicious smile once Ronnie fell deep asleep.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"Cristina, let me ask you something," Linc said. "This morning, some of my sisters and I wound up getting presents. Did you send them?"_

 _The redhead refused to answer, right before shedding a couple of tears as she tried to break free. However, Linc's grip proved to be too strong._

 _"You're not getting away from me this time!" Lincoln declared. "You've been running away for too long, and now that I have you here, I'm not letting you go!"_

 _And then, Cristina used her free hand to punch Lincoln, making him flinch and release her... right before he recovered almost instantly. The students all gasped in shock._

 _Cristina, in particular, looked almost flabbergasted. Not that she was the strongest girl around the school, Ronnie owns the title, but the fact Lincoln recovered so fast from her attack greatly angered the redhead._

 _"Cristina, we both know I'm not a fighter," Linc said as the redhead tried to find a way to escape. "I speak with my words, not with my fists. All I'm asking you, is if you really did send the presents to my house. So, did you or did you not send them?"_


	21. Opening Gifts

_Next day, at the Santiago Household..._

Ronnie Anne slept peacefully in her bed as the sunlight slowly entered her room through the window. She soon woke up when she was called by her brother:

"Ronnie! Remember you have school today!"

The tomboy yawned, stretched for a moment, got off her bed... and watched to her horror that her clothes had been replaced by Cristina's everyday blue outfit.

"What the heck happened to my clothes?!" the tomboy exclaimed in a panic.

Obviously, as Ronnie soon found out, there was only one conclusion to reach:

"Cristina!"

 _Meanwhile, at the Johnson Household..._

The redhead, wearing Ronnie's outfit, pulled off a bunch of poses in front of a mirror, blowing kisses and winks at her reflection. And then her mother called:

"Cristina, you need to go to school! Get done dressing and move out!"

"I'll be there in a minute, mom!" the redhead responded, right before turning back to her reflection. "I still need to pull off some good shots."

In the middle of her narcissistic show-off, Cristina got an idea:

 _"Now, I wonder how my little puppets are doing..."_

 _Another day..._

Another potential problem for the Loud House to deal with. The first Loud to wake up was Lincoln, who immediately noticed the gift box Cristina left behind. Of course, since he already saw it last night, he wasn't particularly surprised to see it.

"Okay, time to find out what's inside this thing," he said before taking the gift... and hesitating. After all, he didn't want to bring even more problems to his family through carelessness. "I wonder from who it is, though?"

He took a look at the note, but all it read was:

 _From: Ronnie Anne Santiago_

 _To: Lincoln Loud_

 _"Huh? Ronnie sent me a gift? When?"_ Linc thought, narrowing his eyes and glancing at the gift box.

This all seemed pretty suspicious.

But nevertheless, the boy opened the gift box. Hey, if Ronnie sent it, then it couldn't be anything bad, right? Well, inside the gift was basically a letter, apparently filled to the brim with... something. On the letter was written:

 _This is what "they" think we would do. This is what "they" make to please themselves. This is what "they", regardless of our opinions, will make to satisfy their needs._

 _I hope you understand. Open the letter, and share my anger... and pain._

 _Advice: Have some bleach nearby._

Linc was left confused, but it would be better if he opened the letter and saw the contents for himself. He shrieked in horror upon seeing the content: A bunch of pictures of him and Ronnie Anne, and ocassionally some or all of his sisters. However, two specific details made him shriek:

They were naked. And doing lewd things. Naked lewd things.

"What the heck is up with these images?! And why would Ronnie send me these things?" Linc took another look at the images, then at the message written in the letter. "I mean, they're disturbing, no doubt about that, but I don't really see how these are supposed to make me understand her pain and anger. I might need the bleach, though."

Lincoln put the pictures back on the letter, and then he closed it before he heard a shriek coming from Lola and Lana's room. He ran there as fast as he could, and once he went in, he saw Lola jumping on her bed up and down while holding a pair of tickets.

"Lola, what's going on?!" Lincoln asked, covering his ears for any incoming screaming.

"I just opened a gift box I found near me, which was apparently sent by an admirer, and it had two tickets to the Blarney Rangers show in Dairyland Amoosement Park this weekend!" the diva explained, before screaming once more. "Do you know how much I love that show?!"

"I'm sure I can't know about something if I didn't know it existed before," Linc replied, rolling his eyes. "Speaking of which-"

And then Lana woke up. "Good morning everybody," she said, right before noticing the gift and reading the "From" and "to" part. "Aw, it's a gift from Luan. I wonder what she gave me."

Lana opened the gift box, and saw it was a Jack-in-a-Box type of game. The girl slowly pulled the lever and waited as the music played, and then slowed down... and down... and down... until it ceased to play at all.

Suddenly, the box opened and a demonic, grinning mask of Lynn popped out as maniacal cackling played. Lana, predictably enough, shrieked and cried at the top of her lungs as she reeled back and hit her bed, with the mask returning to the box as the tomboy twitched, clearly traumatized from what just happened.

And she wasn't the only one: Lincoln stood in shock, while Lola ran after her aid as soon as possible.

"Lana, please! Talk to me!" Lola pleaded, grabbing and shaking her twin sister. "Please, tell me something, anything!"

"Good to see Luan's sense of humor still sucks," Lana blurted before falling unconscious.

 _"Something tells me Luan didn't send that gift..."_ Lincoln thought, narrowing his eyes as he looked at his letter again...

 _Meanwhile, with Luna and Luan..._

Luan slept peacefully before she was woken up by someone punching the wall. Once she got down, she saw it was Luna punching the wall with one hand, while in the other she held a letter. Luan snatched the letter and read it to herself:

 _Hey, babe, I heard you and Luan decided to break up._

 _So, how about you, me, on a date? At Dairyland Amoosement Park._

 _XOXO, "C"._

And then Luna punched the wall again. "I can't believe that guy's nerve!" she yelled, startling the comedian. "Yes, I broke up with Luan, but that doesn't give this "C" guy the slightest excuse to try and date me!"

Luan went to Luna's side and put a hand on the future rockstar's shoulder, causing her to turn around and flinch. "L-Love! I mean, L-Luan! I didn't knew you... I woke you up, didn't I?" Luna said, earning a nod from the prankster. "I'm sorry, I'm just so upset about that letter the gift box had. Can you believe it?"

Luan looked away for a moment before using hand gestures to suggest something. Surprisingly enough, Luna understood perfectly well: "You want me to give this date a shot?"

Luan nodded.

"Well, I guess if you want me to, but I'll have to meet this "C" person in... person, before I decide anything!" Luna stated, with slight doubt on her part. "Anyway, what did your gift box have babe? I mean, sister?"

The comedian went to her gift box, took it from her bed, then opened it to take out... an acoustic guitar. However, while Luna visibly winced at the sight, Luan took a deep breath, sat down, and started to play it... very badly.

"Wait, Luan!" Luna went to Luan's side and sat next to her. "Here, let me show you how it's done."

Luan gave Luna a worried look and refused to hand her the guitar. Looks like the rock girl forgot a certain event.

"Okay, well, let's start with something simple then," Luna corrected, scratching the back of her head. "Try a do-re-mi."

Luan nodded and practiced as she and Luna exchanged blushes and-presumably-smiles, shortly followed by blushing and focusing firmly on the instrument.

 _Lori and Leni's bedroom..._

Leni glanced between the letter she got from the gift box and a sweating, terrified Lori, because of a specific detail revealed by the letter:

 _Lori is Storge._

"L-Leni, I-I-I can explain!" Lori exclaimed, catching Leni's attention. "Listen, while you were away dealing with Luna and Luan's date, Carol Pingry came to me and told me that I was the new Storge, right before she turned into Luna and got beaten up by the real Luna!"

Leni closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she rubbed her forehead.

"Did that make sense?" Lori asked with a nervous smile. "It didn't make sense, did it?"

"There are others," Leni stated, giving Lori a serious look.

Lori, understandably, had no idea what she was talking about. "What?"

"Lori, do you know about the four types of love?" Leni asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, the four types of loves are Agape, Eros, Philia and Sto-" Leni narrowed her eyes as Lori put the pieces together. "Wait, what?! Are you seriously implying that there are people other than me named after the four loves?!"

"Indeed, but the most important question right now is, like: Who is Philia, Eros, and Agape?" Leni added. "We know you are Storge, but the rest are a mystery. Perhaps, we should keep an eye out for potential suspects."

"Huh, you're not sounding like a complete idiot for once," Lori remarked, rubbing her arm. "I'm not sure I like this way you're acting, Leni."

A vein briefly appeared in Leni's forehead as she gave Lori a murderous look, but the teenager quickly composed herself and said, "That's how you know things are dire."

"Kids! Remember you have school!" the Loud parents shouted in unison.

In that instant, all of the Louds rushed to get prepared and immediately bolted straight for school... except for Lisa and Lily. The latter 'cause she was a baby, and the former since she had nothing to do today, nor at the moment.

The little genius woke up and immediately noticed the gift box. She opened it with caution and saw it was-what a surprise-another letter, this one also from the "C" person. All it read was:

 _Check Lincoln's VR game. You may like what you find._

The small brunette threw the paper away... and promptly went to Lincoln's bedroom and boot up the game, which revealed the newly-unlocked Lincoln route.

 _"He did it!"_ she thought, gaining a proud smile. _"Although, I wonder how it is like..."_

The little genius scratched her chin as she thought about the situation...

 _At the school..._

Lincoln arrived and saw Clyde and Ronnie talking about something, with the tomboy still wearing Cristina's clothes. When he tried to butt into the conversation, however, they quickly acted as if they had just met.

"What were you two talking about?" Linc asked, tilting his head. "And why is Ronnie wearing Cristina's clothes?"

"Nothing, what makes you think we were talking about something?" Clyde replied.

"Don't butt in on stuff that don't involve you, Lincoln," Ronnie said, blushing as she looked away. "As for the second part... that's a long story."

And just as Lincoln said his rebuttal, he spotted Cristina walking towards her locker, still wearing Ronnie Anne's clothing. "Be right back," he said before dashing straight for Cristina.

The girl smiled as Lincoln reached her and grabbed her arm to prevent her from escaping. The redhead, and Ronnie and Clyde, looked rather surprised at this action. Making things worse was that a couple of students also noticed and started to gather around the pair.

"Cristina, let me ask you something," Linc said. "This morning, some of my sisters and I wound up getting presents. Did you send them?"

The redhead refused to answer, right before shedding a couple of tears as she tried to break free. However, Linc's grip proved to be too strong.

"You're not getting away from me this time!" Lincoln declared. "You've been running away for too long, and now that I have you here, I'm not letting you go!"

And then, Cristina used her free hand to punch Lincoln, making him flinch and release her... right before he recovered almost instantly. The students all gasped in shock.

Cristina, in particular, looked almost flabbergasted. Not that she was the strongest girl around the school, Ronnie owns the title, but the fact Lincoln recovered so fast from her attack greatly angered the redhead.

"Cristina, we both know I'm not a fighter," Linc said as the redhead tried to find a way to escape. "I speak with my words, not with my fists. All I'm asking you, is if you really did send the presents to my house. So, did you or did you not send them?"

The redhead refused to answer, and gave Lincoln a defiant glare.

"Come on, Cristina, give me an answer! Don't make me do something I'll regret!"

Same result, and by this point, Ronnie and Clyde exchanged worried looks, getting a feeling they knew what was coming next.

"Okay, if you're not going to tell me anything... then you forced me to do this."

Lincoln went forward to Cristina, grabbed her arms and, just as Mrs. Johnson arrived at the scene, Lincoln gave her a passionate kiss, soon followed by the woman, Clyde and Ronnie gasping in sheer horror, while the student circle laughed and pointed at the pair. Not helping matters was that Lincoln held Cristina tightly so she wouldn't escape.

As the kiss went on, Cristina looked around to see the kids laughing at her shortly before seemingly transforming into shadowy figures with white masks, with their laughter echoing in her head as Cristina looked at the ceiling and cried, hoping that the event would end soon.

And it did end soon, for Lincoln separated from Cristina and the laughter stopped as the redhead stood paralyzed, her eyes having turned empty and soulless. Ronnie and Clyde went forward and saw Lincoln walk closer to Cristina, with the classmates' mockery slowly ceasing as he got closer... and closer... and closer...

Until, without warning, the redhead snapped at the boy and started to strangle him.

"Lincoln!" Clyde, Ronnie and Mrs. Johnson exclaimed in unison.

The trio immediately went to the fight and broke the duo apart, just as the fight got intense. Lincoln caught his breath as Ronnie and Clyde dragged him away, while Mrs. Johnson held back Cristina, who hissed and clawed all around the place like a cat.

"Fight's over! Everybody return to what you were doing!" Mrs. Johnson ordered.

The disappointed students left en masse, and Mrs. Johnson took her daughter with her as Linc leaned against his locker and calmed down. Luckily enough, Lincoln looked perfectly fine... that is, outside of the large scars in both his cheeks.

Once she was out of sight, Linc said, "Thanks guys, I really a-"

"You freaking idiotic braindead albino punk!" Ronnie said right before giving Lincoln a black eye. "You gave me a heart attack! Why did you kiss Cristina?!"

"She wouldn't tell me anything, I had to teach her what would happen if she didn't give me an answer!" Lincoln argued back. "And a kiss was the only thing I could think of!"

Ronnie got ready to throw another punch, but she then calmed down and leaned against her locker, clearly exasperated at the turn of events. "Hey, Ronnie Anne," Linc rubbed his shoulder and looked at the ground with regret. "About the kiss-"

"Yeah, that was the dumbest thing you've done in a while, you know?" Ronnie replied, putting her hands in her pockets, "After all that Cristina has done to you and your sisters, it should be pretty obvious to you that messing with her is not a good idea."

"How was I supposed to know she was going to react like that?" Linc replied. "I just wanted to learn if she sent the gifts or not, but she wouldn't answer me."

Ronnie remained quiet before finally saying, "She sent the gifts."

Linc turned back and asked again, "Did she make them all? 'Cause mine was said to have been made by you and-"

"No, I did make that one," Ronnie answered, sounding like she regreted her action. "The rest were made by her."

The boy looked at the ground as Ronnie walk away, but not before throwing him a steak to use as an eye bandage. "Well, now you kissed two girls," Clyde remarked. "I'm not sure about you, but I don't think that's as good as it sounds."

"It's not..." Linc bitterly stated.

"You have to be more careful next time, Lincoln," Clyde remarked, though he changed his tone to a more supportive one when he saw his friend start to sulk. "Listen, how about sometime after school, we hang out to clear your mind a bit?"

Lincoln just nodded, then promptly left, leaving behind Clyde to put his hands in his pockets and think about the situation.

 _"This really was a mistake..."_

 _Meanwhile, with Cristina..._

The girl, still crying over the kiss, sat down and listened as her mother scolded her. "Could you please explain to me what happened between you and Lincoln that wound up with you two kissing and you strangling him?"

Cristina didn't respond. After all, why would she need to? Her mother saw the event, she should know full well what happened: Lincoln kissed her, humilliated her, and she would have punished him had it not be for her mother and those meddling kids. That's the full story, no more, no less.

"Cristina Johnson, I can hear, and I know you can talk!" Mrs. Johnson growled, slamming her ruler on her daughter's desk. "Plus, I don't have time to waste, so tell me what happened!"

And then, the unbelievable happened: Cristina spoke with a hint of _fear._

"Lincoln came asking me something I wasn't comfortable with," she said with a sorrowful tone, clearly trying to gather sympathy. "And when I couldn't answer him, he had the audacity to kiss me in front of our classmates."

"And what were you thinking by strangling him afterwards?!" Mrs. Johnson scowled.

The girl flinched at the yelling, but she managed to recompose herself quickly enough. It's not that she wasn't used to this kind of response from her mother-it's the only response she's gotten since her plan started-but the mere fact that she had failed to manipulate her sent a chill up her spine.

Not that she had manipulated people before now. Nuh uh.

"I wasn't thinking logically by then. I was too angry at the scenery around us," Cristina twiddled her fingers and looked at her desk, remembering how the students laughed. "The people surrounded us. They laughed. They pointed at us. I think I even found a couple of them snapping pictures of it."

And by this moment, the girl forced herself to remember the event: many people shrouded in the darkness, with no notable features other than white smiling masks. But there was one guy she could see: Lincoln. And he wasn't exactly a sight she would like to see anytime soon.

But then, the girl was literally slapped back to reality.

"But that didn't happen! I mean the laughs and pointing, that did happen, but nobody took a picture of anything!" Mrs. Johnson met Cristina face-to-face, with the girl starting to cry once more. "Do you have anything in your defense?"

The girl stuttered and looked around as she desperately tried to think of something to say. Normally, she would probably either brush off or only give the smallest of hints, but those were not an option in this situation. For she was talking to her mother, and there was no way out of this one.

Either she defended herself, or kept her mouth shut. And the woman wouldn't accept the latter option.

"It's his fault this happened in the first place. It's always _his_ fault whenever something happens!" Cristina whined, slamming her fists into the desk. "You should be blaming him, not me!"

With that said and done, Mrs. Johnson got up and took a deep breath before stating: "We'll talk about this later, for now, go back to your classes. And when we get back home, you're grounded. You may take a couple minutes to take a breather, but after 5 minutes pass, I want you in the classroom, paying attention."

The redhead gaped at the statement, with her face frozen with that expression as Mrs. Johnson left the room. And then, to add insult to the injury, she returned only to give the redhead a simple message:

"And give Ronnie back her clothing! It's not okay to steal clothes!"

With that said, the woman left for good, and the girl's expression changed to a furious one as she processed what just happened: First she's essentially grounded _in school_ , and now she was being forced to return Ronnie's clothing? Why? She looked so much better in those clothes than Ronnie did!

Then her expression changed again, this time to a somber, defeated one as she put a hand in her cheek and looked at her reflection in the window.

However, the reflection looked vastly different than the real deal: The eyes were bulging and bloodshot, her hair was a frenzied mess, and instead of tears, she was crying blood. She also sported a demented ear-to-ear smile, and was basically stuck in a sraightjacket.

But even then, they both said the same thing:

"Damn it..."

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

 _"Listen, last time we went to a vacation Bobby paid for us, things... didn't go as well as we had hoped," Lola explained, with Lynn and Lana shivering in response. "Maybe we should think about this whole deal before we take a decision."_

 _"Okay, who wants to go to Dairyland?" Lori asked._

 _Lori immediately lifted her hand, followed by a hesitant Lynn, Lisa, Lana and Luna, which was soon followed by Luan and Lola raising their hands too. "And who wants to stay here?" Leni asked._

 _The blonde raised her hand, followed by Lucy and Lincoln. "By the way, when Lori asked who wanted to go, she meant legitimately and not because someone else will go with her," Leni explained, and Lori nodded in agreement._

 _Lola and Luan promptly raised their hands for staying at home. "Huh, looks like we got a tie," Lori remarked, putting her hand in her hips. "So, how do we break the tie?"_

 _"We'll do that for you."_

 _Everybody turned around and saw Mr. and Mrs. Loud standing nearby, arms folded behind their backs. "Oh hi, we haven't seen you in a while," Leni obliviously remarked._


	22. After School

_At the Santiago household..._

Ronnie-now wearing her normal outfit again-kicked the door open and put her backpack on the ground as her older brother approached her. "Hi, Ronnie!" Bobby cheerfully greeted, oblivious to his sister's silence. "Was your day good?"

But Ronnie didn't answer.

"Um, Ronnie, how was school today?"

Same result.

Then, as the girl went to the couch and sat down, Bobby went to her side and brushed her hair. "Come on, Ronnie, you know you can tell me anything," Bobby said, trying to get his sister's attention. "If something is bothering you-"

And then, Ronnie, with tears streaming down her cheeks, snapped at Bobby: "I don't want to talk about it!"

The boy was surprised, maybe even disappointed, by the statement.

"Well, that's understandable, I guess, but keep in mind that keeping what's upsetting you to yourself won't make it go away," Bobby argued, and the girl simply looked away and put her hands in her pockets. "You'll have to tell me eventually anyway, so, I'm more than happy to wait."

The teenager left and gave Ronnie some breathing space. Which is something she definitely needed at the moment.

First, she tried to get Lincoln to understand her pain, and now, he winds up kissing Cristina-the brat who started this mess in the first place-and so, it was too late.

She turned back to the picture of her and Lincoln and hugged it, for it was the only comfort she could find at the moment.

 _"Lincoln..."_ Ronnie thought as she looked at the picture, her tears falling on Lincoln's head. _"You don't know what you've done..."_

And peeking from the wall, Bobby watched with a look of regret as Ronnie continued to cry.

The boy returned to the kitchen and started to make dinner as he thought:

 _"If this is how Ronnie's acting, I wonder how Lincoln's doing."_

 _Meanwhile, at the Loud House..._

Lincoln opened the door and went inside... only to be greeted by Lori's furious glare, which immediately turned into a worried one when she noticed the scars in her brother's cheeks. "Where did these scars come from?!" Lori asked, gently touching the scars to see if they hurt.

The remaining sisters immediately gathered around and looked at the injuries, equally worried for their brother. "I got them at school," Lincoln answered as Leni covered the scars with bandages. "You see, I... I kinda got into a fight, which I didn't start! I just tried to ask someone for information, they didn't answer, and then... we fought."

"Well, who was this kid that hurt you?" Lynn asked, cracking her knuckles. "Tell us who it was, and we'll make sure to find this kid and beat them up for it. And unlike the Ronnie Anne incident, we'll beat them up even if they're a girl!"

The rest of the sisters nodded in agreement. Lincoln twiddled his fingers and took a deep breath before nervously answering, with a forced smile:

"It was Cristina."

The sisters' hearts skipped a beat as they felt a chill go up their spine. In any other situation, the sisters would probably have no problem fighting the redhead. But after the entire resort fiasco, going up against her was the last thing they wanted.

"W-Well... W-We can help you recover your injuries in the meantime!" Luna stuttered, looking everywhere in a panic. "N-No need to go confront Cristina, right?"

"Sure, I was hoping you'd leave her alone for now," Lincoln answered.

The sisters took a deep breath of relief and collapsed on the ground.

"Oh right, speaking of... Her..." Lori said as she got up.

Then Lori showed Lincoln her phone, which had a picture of him kissing Cristina, with a heart-like banner, some floating hearts, and just generally stuff that romanticized the event a little too much.

"Lincoln, care to explain to me why are people saying online that you kissed Cristina?" Lori asked, clearly angry at her brother. "And can you explain to me why you did that in the first place?!"

"Okay, before I say anything, how angry are you?" Linc replied, making Lori raise an eyebrow. "Get out of my room" angry or "I will turn you into a human pretzel" angry?"

"I'm not angry, I'm disappointed," Lori bluntly stated.

Lincoln was taken aback by the statement.

"You had Cristina in your clutches, you could have done anything you wanted to her... and all you do is kiss her?" Lori scolded, meeting Lincoln face-to-face. "Do you really think that's going to help us figure out what's going on? You could have asked her what was up with the game, or why it turned us into lesbians, or other stuff like that-"

"She wouldn't answer me, and that's why I kissed her!" Lincoln snapped. "It was the only thing I could think of, okay?!"

And then, the sisters gave Lincoln angry looks, until Luna practically said what they were all thinking:

"You messed up, bro."

"What are you talking abo-" and then, he realized he kissed Cristina while Ronnie watched nearby. "Oh gosh, I kissed Cristina while Ronnie was around. Do you think she's upset about it?"

"Upset?! If you saw your lover kissing somebody else out in the open, wouldn't you be upset or heartbroken too?!" Lori leaned closer to Lincoln and hissed, "You should be ashamed, Lincoln! I swear, if I was back with Bobby, your insensitivity would have costed you your precious little life!"

The rest of the sisters, particularly Lana, Lynn and Lucy, winced at the statement. Admittedly, it sounded pretty gruesome in hindsight, even if it was a vague threat at best. And Lori herself soon noticed this too.

"Okay, so I wouldn't kill you, but I would definitely make you regret your decision," Lori corrected. "Next time you decide to do something with Cristina, think before you act!"

And as the sisters shrugged and somewhat accepted the correction, Leni watched Lori with disapproval. So, when Lori said the next, she went to her and cracked her knuckles. "What other stupid things have you done that could endangered us, huh? Spit it out!"

Leni pulled Lori up and looked at her face-to-face. "Lori, maybe you should give Lincoln a break," the fashionista said in a condescending tone, no doubt annoying her older sister. "After all, he's not the only one who's made mistakes."

"W-What are you talking about?" Lincoln asked, rubbing his arm in fear.

"Don't worry, Lincoln, you're not the only one who has made mistakes," Leni told to the boy with a reassuring tone. "I, for example, have been acting like an idiot for far too long. So long, in fact, people have made it a habit to ignore me, just because I'm not worth their time. And while I do plan to fix that soon enough, I first need to point out the other flaws."

First, Leni turned to Lisa. "You are a genius, that can't be denied, but you waste your intelligence in worthless science-related matters, when there are far more pressing matters at hand that could use your help," Leni stated, leaning closer to Lisa before listing some such matters: "Lack of good technology, incompetent management of schools, _family issues_ , and so on."

With that said and done, Leni went to the twins next. "Lana, you always return home as dirty as a player, and you don't even bother to clean your messes. Lola, on the other hand, is not only a jerk in general, but her voice nearly drives me deaf every time I hear, it's just that loud."

Then she went to Lucy. "The quiet goth of the family. Your poems are decent. Trying to shove them down our throats, is not."

Then to Lynn. "And who could forget Lynn and her indoor sports? We've wound up losing a lot of money because of it. I'm sure nothing more needs to be said about you."

Then to Luan. "The comedian, or so they call you. Let me ask you a question: Have you ever seen any of us laugh at your puns and jokes? No? If that's the case, then that means they're not good. And they were never good. Only when other people other than the comedian itself laugh at the joke can it be considered good, and unfortunately for you, Luan, that means your jokes are not good. Or even worse: Not. Funny."

Then to Luna. "The musician who has hopes for the future, but the inability to control herself. Remember what I said about Lola's insufferable voice? It's kind of the same here, only with music. Just because we're the "Loud" family doesn't give you the right to play your music at full volume.

Finally, she turned to Lori. "And last but not least, Lori Loud. Ex-girlfriend of Bobby. Legendary in the house for her bad temper. Unable to stay away from her phone for 5 minutes, or at least, that applied before this whole incident," Leni remarked, right before chuckling and rubbing her forehead. "Lori, my dear cinnamon roll, out of this whole crowd of ignored mistakes, yours are quite possibly the worst."

The remaining sisters visibly flinched at the implication: What did Leni know? How did she get to know about it? And what exactly were Lori's mistakes, which were apparently so bad, she directly said they were the worst of the bunch?

"Are you implying something, Leni?!" Lori barked before freeing herself from Leni's grasp.

"Oh I don't know, Lori, is there anything _you_ are hiding from us?" Leni remarked, putting on a smug smile while remaining calm and collected. "Something you should have told us once you had it? Something that, the more you keep hidden, the bigger it will bite your arse?"

Lori felt a shiver crawling up her spine as the sisters-and Lincoln-looked at her. "Guys, I believe Lori here has been hiding something from us, and it's time for her to reveal the truth," Leni stated, her tone slowly growing more agressive. "So, how about you spill the beans, Lori?"

The phone-obsessed teenager immediately remembered something Bobby told her earlier, and put on a smile-and earned a confused look from Leni in response-as she hastily confessed:

"Bobby has given us an invitation to go with his family to Dairyland Amoosement Park!"

The instant she revealed that, the tomboys-that is Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lana and Lisa-all cheered up and rejoiced, while the more feminine sisters-as in Lucy, Lola and Leni-looked surprised. Leni, in particular, flinched and backed away, having apparently not predicted that among the stuff her sister was hiding.

Lincoln, however, just looked confused. "When did that happen?" he asked.

"A day or two earlier, I don't remember, and I don't care," Lori replied, raising her fist victoriously. "What matters is that we're going to Dairyland!"

"Um, are you sure we should, like, do that?" Leni asked.

"What do you mean?" Lori replied.

"Listen, last time we went to a vacation Bobby paid for us, things... didn't go as well as we had hoped," Lola explained, with Lynn and Lana shivering in response. "Maybe we should think about this whole deal before we take a decision."

"Okay, who wants to go to Dairyland?" Lori asked.

Lori immediately lifted her hand, followed by a hesitant Lynn, Lisa, Lana and Luna, which was soon followed by Luan and Lola raising their hands too. "And who wants to stay here?" Leni asked.

The blonde raised her hand, followed by Lucy and Lincoln. "By the way, when Lori asked who wanted to go, she meant legitimately and not because someone else will go with her," Leni explained, and Lori nodded in agreement.

Lola and Luan promptly raised their hands for staying at home. "Huh, looks like we got a tie," Lori remarked, putting her hand in her hips. "So, how do we break the tie?"

"We'll do that for you."

Everybody turned around and saw Mr. and Mrs. Loud standing nearby, arms folded behind their backs. "Oh hi, we haven't seen you in a while," Leni obliviously remarked.

"Before we decide anything, we need to know how you're all feeling right now," Mr. Loud said. "We heard some crying yesterday, and we also heard Luan was taken to the hospital, so we need to know if everybody else is okay."

"Okay, now, we want you to be honest," Mrs. Loud stated before asking, "How are you all feeling?"

"I'm fine," Lori said with a shrug.

"I'm, like, fine too," Leni said, imitating Lori's movements.

"I'm not complaining," Luna answered, right before Luan showed her some hand gestures. "And neither is Luan, for that matter."

"Haven't really paid attention, but I guess I'm... okay?" Lynn said, scratching the back of her head.

"Seeing how I normally act, is there really a difference?" Lucy asked back.

"I'm... okay?" Lana scratched her butt for a while and then decisively said, "Yeah, I'm okay."

"If Lana's okay, then so am I," Lola stated, arms folded.

"Okay, should we presume the rest are fine too?" Mr. Loud asked, earning nods from everybody but Lincoln, who looked away and rubbed his arm. "What is it, Lincoln?"

"I'm... not comfortable talking about it," was Lincoln's only response.

The boy soon got an ultimatum from his mom: "Lincoln, if you don't tell us what's wrong, you're not coming with to Dairyland."

And the instant he heard the ultimatum, he got an idea: Since he made Ronnie Anne upset thanks to the kiss, and it was simply common sense to believe Bobby would take her with him to Dairyland, he could go and make up for it for her by giving her the best Dairyland visit of her life. It's the least he could do, after all.

"I kissed another girl while Ronnie Anne was nearby, and I probably hurt her feelings," Lincoln hastily explained, but his parents were unfazed. "But since Bobby will take her to Dairyland, I'm sure I can make it up for her. So can I go, please?"

"Sure, you'll go with Lucyi, Lola, Lana and Lisa," Mrs. Loud firmly explained. "Everybody else will stay here."

And with that said and done, the Loud parents went upstairs and left their kids behind. Surprisingly, nobody had a problem with their decision. Then again, Mrs. Loud was the one who made the decision, so that might have something to do with it.

"Okay, it's all been decided then," Leni said with a pleased smile. "Now if you excuse me, I have to call someone."

"And so do I, Bobby didn't really tell me anything about the visit or why he invited us specifically," Lori said, following Leni. "Be back soon!"

Luan then whispered something to Luna, shortly followed by the duo heading upstairs as well. "Luan also has to make a call in private," Luna explained before waving goodbye. "See ya."

And so, with most of the older Louds away, Lynn and Lana exchanged looks before Lola separated them and dragged Lynn to the backyard. "You, me, backyard, now!" she hissed as Lana followed them.

Thus, the only remaining Louds in the room were Lisa, Lucy and Lincoln. The boy went to the couch and sat down, placing his hand in his cheek as the little genius and emo sat next to him. Notably, despite being the most stoic of the sisters, Lisa and Lucy seemed worried for their brother.

"How are you feeling, Lincoln?" Lucy asked, putting a hand in Linc's shoulder.

"Bad: I not only hurt Ronnie Anne's feelings, but I probably angered Cristina as well. And Clyde didn't seem particularly happy about what I did either. I basically upset three people with one single action," Lincoln explained, while Lucy started to brush his hair with a sly smile. "And while I don't know what to do regarding Clyde, at least I know that I can make. I mean, Lori said Bobby invited us with his family to Dairyland, that means Ronnie has to go."

"And what about Cristina?" Lisa said as she pulled the boy towards her. After all, Lucy was in no condition to stay too close to Lincoln. "I mean, you kissed her, and seeing what she has done before, aren't you worried she might do something worse in retaliation?"

Now that she mentioned Cristina, Lincoln couldn't help but ponder about her revenge. Delivering malicious gifts, turning his sisters into lesbians, she certainly had no problem doing some questionable things in return. But what would she do?

"Well, we can focus about that later, okay?" Lincoln replied, brushing Lisa's hair as he tried his hardest to hide his fear. "Besides, who knows? Maybe she decided to ignore what happened and continue focus on whatever she's planning?"

 _Meanwhile, with Cristina..._

The redhead constantly punched a punching bag modeled after Lincoln in the groin before she heard her phone ring. She answered right after she kicked the punching bag hard enough to get her foot stuck in it's broken crotch.

"Boss, It's Agape here," answere a hoarse voice, no doubt bringing Cristina a migraine. "Your plan to have me and Carol act like the parents is ridiculous! I mean, she has no problem sharing her shape-shifting abilities with me, but do we really have to act like those two cookie cutters for the whole Dairyland event?"

"You're not one to talk about cookie cutters, Agape, specially because if you keep questioning me, you're going to end up in the garden!" Cristina replied. "Now listen up, once the Dairyland business is over, you can go back to normal and leave, but until then, I want you to act as the Loud parents, got it? Now shut up and get back to work!"

Cristina hung the phone and took her foot out of the punching bag... Just as her phone rang again. She answered the call with a simple greeting:

"Do I need to remind you how the garden is like for you to get back to work, Agape?!"

Okay, so it was more of a threat.

"Uh, boss, It's Eros here," the minion said on the other end, surprising Cristina. "Listen, I just had a phone call from someone. I don't know who they are, apparently they want to Anony-"

The guy paused as Cristina frowned, mentally hoping he wouldn't say what she thought he was going to say.

"Unknown," Eros corrected, making Cristina go back to normal almost immediately. "But they had a particular suggestion after the Dairyland fiasco is over. It's something that will both bring a lot of opportunities to mess around with the Louds and also potentially get rid of Agape."

And, once again, Cristina spoke:

"Tell me what's their suggestion."

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Lincoln, take me to the Blarney Rangers show!" Lana requested.

"No, he's going to take me somewhere else first!" Lisa argued, grabbing and pulling Lincoln to her side. "Besides, the Blarney Rangers show starts later!"

Before things escalated into an argument, Lincoln went to a nearby balloon stand, took a pair of balloons and handed them to the girls while saying, "Listen, there will be time to look at both things, but since the Blarney Rangers show happens later, we'll look at what Lisa wants to see first, okay?"

Lisa gave Lana a smug look as the mud lover looked away and said, "Fine."

"And Lisa, I don't want you to mess with Lana," Linc added. "She's been through enough."

The little genius crossed her arms and nodded as Lana blew a raspberry at her.

 _"It's going to be a pain to get these two to like each other, that's for sure,"_ Linc thought.


	23. An Amoosing Day at Dairyland

_A long time later..._

The weekend arrived, and just as Bobby and Ronnie leaned against the entrance of the amoosement park, Bobby put a hand in Ronnie's shoulder as she looked at the sky, specifically a cloud that looked like Lincoln. And then...

"Ronnie!"

The duo turned around and saw the Louds-as in Lincoln, Lucy, Lisa, Lana, Lola and Mr. Loud-running to them. Ronnie, however, made it clear she wasn't happy to see the guy in the slightest. Mostly by not saying anything.

"Uh, hi, Ronnie," Lincoln nervously greeted.

"Hi, Cheater-O," Ronnie bitterly greeted before taking a look at the boy's sister. "So, you decided to bring these sisters?"

"Yeah, you see-"

"I don't care what sisters you bring, as long as they don't take you away from me," Ronnie hissed. "The only reason I'm even here in the first place is because Bobby convinced me, so you better make it worthwhile, Lincoln!"

The boy and tomboy went inside the amoosement park, shortly followed by the Louds.

Finally, the Louds found themselves inside Dairy Land Amoosement Park, and they all went in and separated to go have fun on their own. In this case, Lincoln wound up with Ronnie, Lisa, and Lana, the latter clinging to his arm while Ronnie watched in amusement.

"Lincoln, take me to the Blarney Rangers show!" Lana requested.

"No, he's going to take me somewhere else first!" Lisa argued, grabbing and pulling Lincoln to her side. "Besides, the Blarney Rangers show starts later!"

Before things escalated into an argument, Lincoln went to a nearby balloon stand, took a pair of balloons and handed them to the girls while saying, "Listen, there will be time to look at both things, but since the Blarney Rangers show happens later, we'll look at what Lisa wants to see first, okay?"

Lisa gave Lana a smug look as the mud lover looked away and said, "Fine."

"And Lisa, I don't want you to mess with Lana," Linc added. "She's been through enough."

The little genius crossed her arms and nodded as Lana blew a raspberry at her.

 _"It's going to be a pain to get these two to like each other, that's for sure,"_ Linc thought.

And so, they went to forward to check the games, with Ronnie Anne following them closely. The first game they checked was the classic "test your strength" game, consisting of having to slam a hammer down Tippy's udders, releasing milk depending on the resulting strength.

"There's something about this game that, makes me feel uncomfortable," Lisa remarked, taking a closer look at the game.

"Huh, strength games, one of Lynn's favorites," Lana said with a longing tone, putting her hands in her pockets.

"Did you just imply you're missing Lynn?" Lola said, folding her arms.

The tomboy quickly looked around before hastily saying, "N-Not at all! I'm just, remembering the good times! Which are not right now!"

"What happened between you two?" Ronnie inquired, sounding genuinely worried.

"I'm not comfortable talking about it, and Lola wouldn't really let me talk about it anyway," Lana replied before approaching Ronnie and saying, "Hey, maybe you'd like to hang out? It's going to take a while for Lincoln to lift that hammer."

The duo took a look at Lincoln, who tried his hardest to lift the hammer, even when he had help from Lucy and Lisa. Ronnie, however, was pretty hesitant about it. After all, she was partially responsible for the mess that had happened in the resort. However, Lana's adorable little puppy-dog eyes soon convinced her to perhaps enjoy some free time with the tomboy.

"Alright, kid, let's hang out," she said with a smile.

Lana grabbed Ronnie's hand and the two left as Lola noticed the pair and decided to follow them, leaving behind Lucy, Lisa and Lincoln to try lift the stupidly heavy hammer.

 _Meanwhile, back at the Loud House..._

Nothing was particulary out of the ordinary. Currently, that is. Previously, that is the original sisters and Lincoln, this would be all kinds of weird. But times had forcefully changed.

Anyway, Luna taught Luan how to play the guitar, with the comedian starting to get a hang of it, Lynn played with a ball on the backyard with a melancholic look on her face, and Leni walked back and forth in the hallway, apparently trying to imitate Lori's "Sergeant" routine back when she had to babysit everybody.

Speaking of Lori, the teenager was currently in her and Leni's bedroom, trying to call her boyfriend Bobby. However, no matter how many times she called, he would always cancel the call.

"Come on, Bobby, don't leave me hanging," Lori pleaded as she called once more. "Please, I need some answers and somebody to talk to, and even if you can't do the first you can certainly do the latter!"

And then, a miracle happened: Bobby actually answered the call!

"Hello?"

"Oh thank god you answered, Bobby!" Lori exclaimed in pure joy. "You don't know how hard I've tried to call you! Okay, now, how's everybody doing over there? Is dad being an embarrassing person? Are Lincoln and Ronnie having a good time? Why didn't you answer my previous calls? Did you get all my questions?"

The silence on the other end was all Lori needed to know the answer.

"...Okay, let me try to answer all your questions first," Bobby took a deep breath, and hastily answered, "We're all doing fine, Mr. Loud is actually being decent, I'm not sure if Ronnie is even with Lincoln right now, I had to wait until the right moment to call back. Yes, I got all your questions."

"Wow, you actually did get them all!" Lori remarked. Specially because, this being Bobby, you'd expect him to mess up at least one question. "So anyway-"

"Lori, listen to me, I have some answers to give you," Bobby interrupted, not that Lori minded. Some answers would be nice. "About you being Storge, about Cristina, about everything. But you need to do this: Outside of your house, at the door, there should be an associate of mine. When you open the door and see her, she will run away. You have to follow her to the meeting place. Don't lose track of her."

Lori, however, soon pointed out a particularly better alternative: "Bobby, just tell me where the meeting place is."

"Lori, I really wish it was that simple, but the boss prefers complex and complicated to simple," Bobby paused before finishing, "Just... do as I said, follow her, and don't ask questions. Bobby out."

So, knowing what to do next, Lori left the room and went downstairs. Surprisingly enough, she didn't seem to catch Leni's attention, although that might have been because... well, she was Leni. Dodging her shouldn't be rocket science.

And yet, when she reached for the doorknob...

"Care to tell me where are you going?"

Lori froze in place and turned around to see Leni, arms crossed and with an angry look. Maybe not telling her right away what Bobby told her did make Leni suspicious of what Lori was going to do...

"Well, you see, Bobby just called me and, uh, he said that he would give me the answers to what the heck is going on," Lori nervously explained, twiddling her fingers. "His associate is outside, I'll just follow her to the meeting place and he'll answer everything!"

"And how do you know he won't just lie to you?" Leni quickly pointed out.

With what was going on, that was a legitimate concern.

"Leni, this is Bobby," Lori argued back. "If he was nice enough to accept our forced lesbian love, then he'll be nice enough to explain something about whatever is going on.

Leni narrowed her eyes before taking a deep breath. "Fine, but once you get your answers, I want you to swallow up your fear and tell us what answers you got once you get back home!" she hissed, pointing at Lori with a judging eye. "You've been hiding enough secrets for today!"

And so, Leni went back upstairs and Lori opened the door to see the associate outside. Who was this associate?

Carol Pingry.

Just before she could ponder what this meant, though, Carol ran away and, remembering Bobby told her not to ask questions, Lori ran after Carol.

 _Back at Dairyland..._

Ronnie and Lana sat together in front of a pond, throwing a couple of rocks at the water. Lana threw one, but it only jump twice before falling in the water. Ronnie, however, managed to throw the rock hard enough to make it jump across the water and crash onto a tree.

"Wow, you're really good at throwing rocks, Ronnie!" Lana said in awe. "What's your secret?"

"No secret, just have a really good arm," Ronnie proudly answered while flexing her arms. Not that she had much to show off.

Lana sighed and, seeing Lynn's face in the water with a wide smile, she looked at the water with slight fear... and slight joy. "I bet if Lynn was here, she would have challenged you to a rock-throwing battle," she then reached for the Lynn image, but the instant her fingers touched the water, she dispersed into nothingness. "She has a really bad habit of doing that. I wonder who would have won such a fight, though..."

"You seem to be talking a lot about this Lynn lately," Ronnie remarked, putting a hand in Lana's shoulder. "Is there something you would like to tell me about her?"

"Well... Lola isn't around, so I guess I can tell you something," Lana took a deep breath before explaining, "This is, back at the resort, Lynn acted weird and... she did some things that wound up making me very afraid of her. But after I got some time to rest, I don't know, I've started to... miss her."

Ronnie couldn't help but wonder if Lana was talking about another Lynn. After all, if she was referring to the Loud, then she had molested her, which would be a one-way ticket to being hated by everybody. And yet, Lana seemed legitimately sincere when she said she missed Lynn.

"Back before this all happened, I really liked Lynn, you know? Not to the extent of being in love with her, of course, but Lynn was the coolest older sister I could ever hope for," Lana further explained, grabbing Ronnie's hand with both of hers. "The rest... well, Lori was annoying, Leni was too dumb, Luan wouldn't stop spitting out puns, Luna was the only one I could, and even then we didn't share a lot in common. But with Lynn, I really felt like we had a connection, a common ground we could both stand on."

Ronnie choked, she had the feeling that whatever came next would make her feel sorry for joining Cristina's plan, but she had no other choice but to listen. After all, anything else would probably blow her cover.

"There was one time when she invited me to play soccer in a very muddy field. I gladly accepted, and by the end of the game, we were both covered in mud," Lana looked down and saw a mud-covered Lynn on the water. "She completely wrecked me in the soccer game, but she soon made up for it by letting me attack her with as much mud as possible. Seriously, she looked like a mud monster after I finished bombarding her with the stuff!"

And in that instant, Ronnie felt like shit. Because of what she helped cause, a pair of close friends like Lana and Lynn were torn apart, becoming the first to suffer because of Cristina's plan.

And they weren't going to be the last, either.

"Well, how are things between you two right now?" Ronnie nervously asked.

"Lola doesn't even let me go near Lynn, and Lynn seems to be just as nervous around me as I am around her," Lana put her hand on her cheek in melancholy. "I really would like to try and make things up with her, but unless Lola learns that she doesn't need to watch me every now and then, it's nothing but a dream."

And then she looked at the sky, where she saw the image of her and Lynn hugging each other.

"I just wish the old times were back."

"...They'll be back, but you need to wait," Ronnie replied, brushing Lana's hair. "For now, how about you return to Lincoln and the others? I'll catch up with you later."

Lana nodded and got up, but before she left, Ronnie exclaimed, "Wait, there's something I need you to do!"

"Sure, what is it?" Lana said, putting her hands in her pockets.

Ronnie took a deep breath before stating her request:

"I want you to deliver a message to Lincoln."

So she whispered the message and sent Lana away, right before she turned to Lola and gestured her to come closer. The pageant diva begrudgingly accepted and sat next to the tomboy. "Be quick, I have to return to make sure Lana remains safe."

"Listen, I get what you're trying to do, but you're not doing it in the right way," Ronnie told the diva, earning a surprised glare from her. "If you really want to help your sister, you have to ask her how she feels, what she needs, you must talk to her in general. Otherwise, Cristina's going to make you pay dearly for it!"

"I must have wax on my ears, 'cause I think I just heard you telling me how to help my sister deal with her problems," Lola inquired, earning a single nod from Ronnie in response.

The diva didn't take kindly to the suggestion. "Listen up, missy! Nobody knows how to help Lana like I do! So take a fork, place your words on a salad, and eat it up!" she hissed.

And with her mind spoken, Lola got up, whipped her hair straight at Ronnie, and stomped her way back to her siblings.

 _"What an unbearable diva,"_ Ronnie thought, before chuckling to herself, _"No wonder Cristina takes so much from her."_

 _Back with Lori..._

The teenager continued to chase after Carol, who guid her to what seemed like an abandoned warehouse. "Keep it up, Junior!" Carol mockingly said. "We've almost reached the meeting point!"

"Don't call me Junior!" Lori hissed.

And so, Carol charged forward to the warehouse and went inside, giggling like a little girl all the while. Once Lori went inside, however, Carol was nowhere to be seen. There wasn't any indication as to where she could have gone to, either, she just... vanished.

So, Lori decided to look around for a bit, only to barely find anything of interest. The warehouse was only a single story tall, with a desk with a pretty large hiding spot underneath it... and there wasn't really anything else that caught her eye.

"Okay, Bobby, if you're nearby or hearing me, Carol lead me here!" Lori shouted at the top of her lungs. "Is this the meeting place?"

And then, a couple seconds later, the lights blared.

"Maybe shouting wasn't such a good idea," Lori thought.

"It seems a teenager has found her way inside the building. However, as nobody else other than authorized personnel is allowed, we'll dispatch a group of dairyland workers in order to look for her. She'll be rescued, reprimanded, and then returned to her parental guardian or guardians."

 _"Oh shit."_

"We shall now deactivate the power of the control room, so that she may not mess around with the buttons like a child. However, this will also lock her indefinetly until the dairyland workers manage to reach her location. This is a required security measure so as to not let any more kids enter the building."

 _"Oh shit!"_

"Please enjoy the rest of your visit. Deactivating."

 _"Crap."_

And the power immediately turned off, leaving Lori in the darkness. Huh, so this is what Lucy's life was all about? But the time to make jokes was cut short when she heard some adults speak while banging the doors:

"Okay kid, stay where you are, we'll come pick you up soon!"

However, Lori couldn't help but freak out: First she was stupid enough to shout on an abandoned warehouse, and now she was definitely going to get into trouble. Luckily, however, a voice soon spoke from... somewhere:

"So, it looks like you're caught in some pretty hefty trouble, huh? Don't worry, I'm not your enemy. I'm your friend."

The voice didn't sound familiar to the rock girl at all, so she didn't really know whether to trust it or not. Then again, she was stuck in a pitch-black area with a bunch of people looking for her, so what could she do?

"There's a hiding spot under the desk. It should work as cover. Not forever, mind you, but it should work long enough to make it worthwhile."

So the rock girl immediately hid under the desk and hoped for the best. And after that, she was just met with the dead silence of the pitch black room. Most importantly, she could hear the people looking for her downstairs, their feet stomping hard enough to make it sound like they were hunting her or something.

And then, without warning, the voice spoke again:

"I have a story to share. I was hoping somebody would hear it out for me, but nobody has been willing to listen. But you have no other choice: You either hear me until the adults come, or you do that in absolute silence."

Sadly, the voice had a point.

"It all started with a girl. Red hair, normally silent, pretty dang stupid. She once saw something she wished had never been put up. A boy she used to like, making out with her picture. How did he find out? Who told him about it? Who else knew? That lost meaning. The girl's classmates laughed at the sight, and while they mocked the boy as well, he was not the only one mocked. He was _never_ the only one."

This sounded familiar...

"A couple days later, the girl found out from some girls that they were making things about her and the boy. Kissing. Holding hands. As adults, married with a daughter, or two, or many more. But the girl wasn't flattered. She was horrified. She and the boy had nothing left, he ruined for both of them, so why... why did they make that stuff? And most importantly... what else had they made?"

Lori gulped, getting an idea of what she was going to say next.

"The girl tried to do the one thing most kids do when they want to find out more about something: Research the internet. But while her laptop managed to show her the stuff she was wondering about it, and much more she'd rather not see, it was still not enough. She saw herself and the boy, her best friend and the boy, and the boy's family and... well, you get the idea. But there was one thing stopping her. The adult filter. Unfortunately, she had a way to bypass it..."

The rock girl covered her mouth, since she heard the footsteps growing even louder than before. And then, she felt a sharp pain in her head before the voice spoke again... inside her mind.

"Looks like the men are coming near. So I'll make sure this conversation remains... private. Anyway, as I was saying, the girl decided to get her best friend's help in finishing her research. She allowed her to use her sibling's laptop, which lacked the filter, to finish it up. But upon seeing the filterless research, she was traumatized by what she saw. Do you want to know what she saw?"

Lori shook her head, but of course, the voice had no idea to know she was saying no.

"Indecent stuff, moron. Intercourse, for the most part. Between her and the boy, her best friend and the boy, and most importantly, the boy's family and the boy. There were endless picture of one or more of the family members in lewd situations. She was a small fly compared to the family and the boy. Do you know what she did next? She showed it to her best friend. She was disturbed too. Disgusted even."

For being a girl, she sure did a dick move.

"Wanna know what else they saw? Changed behavior. _Forced_ change of behavior at that. The boy, the girl's best friend, the girl herself, the boy's family... it didn't matter who they saw, they didn't act like themselves. Aggressive, passive, submissive, dominant... those were the most common results of the changes. And guess what? They made the changed people do things to other people, who were forced to cope. But the girl herself wasn't one of the victims. Two of those victims were her best friend and... T _he boy_.

That last part was said with a tone of utter disgust and anger. What did that imply?

"But when they showed it to her best friend's sibling... he failed to see the problem. It's just fiction, he said. It's not reality, he said. But he failed to understand. This had been happening for a while... and he did nothing. A lot of people knew this was happening... and they did nothing. In fact, everybody else in Royal Woods probably knew this was happening... and were doing nothing about it. Can you guess what the girl did? Something."

What a shock. And speaking of shocks, Lori could feel a small spark on her neck...

"She decided to cut a deal with some people, who did the job, but were massive pains in the ass to deal with. Nevertheless, they made machines to force the changes, they made chips to force homosexuality, and then they made a game to kickstart the plan. The plan to end their suffering. Their mockery. Their torment... Hehehe..."

The voice started to sound... unhinged. Like she was starting to get mad.

"But that's not all! Hahaha! There's more! There's _always_ more! How about you take a guess for once, though? Go on, guess. What more has happened? What else could they do? What else, did the girl do, in order to rid the world of the horrors that left her traumatized?"

How? The voice was being vague at best and enigmatic at worst.

"Children."

Oh shit.

"But these children... they look nothing like what you would probably find. Oh no, they don't look good at all. Wanna know why? They're the result, of incest. Incest brings inbreeding. Inbreeding brings deformations. Deformations, make these children, plead and whine for death, because they were brought into this world in malformed bodies! They were brought into this world, 'cause somebody had the brilliant idea, to try and bring them to this world, while ignoring the biological consequences!"

By this point, the sparkle was growing more and more painful, almost as if it was about to shock the girl...

"Huh, how surprising, the men have yet to find you. Well, I'm almost out of things to say, so..."

And then, pink lighting surrounded Lori's neck...

"I think I'll give them a little helping hand."

Suddenly, Lori felt a sharp pain all over her body as she was violently electrocuted, with the pink lighting illuminating the area as she hit the floor.

"Isn't this shocking? You don't like your current situation! I bet you want to go Ohm! But guess what, you're not going home!"

The adults approached Lori, and then she saw something interesting: They were not adults. There was one teenager, one kid... and Carol Pingry.

"You're going to my home, where you will be punished! Because you felt nothing! Because you learned nothing! Because you. Did-"

And as Lori lost consciousness, Carol put on a pair of rubber gloves and reached for her...

"Nothing!"

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"You know about Cristina's plan?" Linc asked, his eyes opening wide.

Ronnie reluctantly nodded. They were in a private place, so she didn't need to be that secretive with him.

"Ronnie, please, you have to tell me what you know about Cristina's plan!" the boy pleaded, his tone dripping with desperation and fear. "My sisters-no, my whole family depends on figuring out how to deal with it and turn everything back to normal!"


	24. An Amoosing Day at Dairyland II

_Back with Lana..._

The tomboy returned to the strength game, where Lisa, Lucy and Lincoln were still trying to lift the heavy hammer. "You know, something tells me we should pick another game," Lisa remarked, right before she turned and noticed the tomboy. "Oh hi Lana, where's Ronnie Anne?"

"Well, you see-" and then, Lola got on Lana's side and put a hand on her shoulder. "Oh gosh, not you again."

"Yes, Lana, maybe you know where Ronnie Anne went?" Lola asked mockingly. "Who knows, maybe you have something she asked you to deliver?"

And then, the unthinkable happened: Lana pushed Lola aside.

"I can tell them on my own, Lola!" the tomboy hissed before turning to Lincoln and saying Ronnie's message. "Listen, Ronnie is waiting for you at the tunnel of love. There are a couple of things she has to tell you in private."

"And why does she want to tell me about them in the tunnel of love?" Lincoln asked, crossing his arms.

"Hey, I'm just the messenger," Lana shrugged. "Anyway, you should go now, the faster you get this done the more available you will be to take me to the Blarney Rangers show later!"

Lincoln nodded and immediately ran to the designated meeting place, leaving behind his younger sisters. "Okay, so, who is going to watch over us now?" Lisa asked.

Suddenly, Mr. Loud returned holding four popcorn bags. "Who wants some popcorn?" he asked.

The girls smiled. And soon enough, they all went to various different games and decided to play them:

Lucy and Lana decided to play with the bumper cars, and they bumped into each other repeatedly while Lola watched nearby... while being constantly bumped by Lisa. "I don't know which is more strange: the fact we're legally allowed to drive these cars, or the fact that we're better than Leni," the little genius joked, forcing a smile.

But Lola wasn't fazed. "Too forced?" Lisa asked, sounding genuinely worried.

Up next, they rode a rollercoaster, with Lana and Lisa sharing the front seat while Lola and Lucy were behind them. And you know something had to be wrong when _Lucy_ was the one raising her hands and screaming, even if it was a monotone groan at best. Lola, however, just crossed her arms with a furious look,though not before making sure her tiara wasn't blown away.

"I have several questions!" Lisa exclaimed, holding the bar for dear life.

"Shut up and enjoy!" Lana replied, screaming in joy.

And last but not least, the girls went into a house of mirrors. Lana danced as her reflection-a very fat Lana-repeated her motions, while Lisa looked in shock as her reflection was just as tall, and even kind of like, Leni. Lucy stared at her mirror, which was basically just Lars, and Lola stood in front of her own with a furious look, with the reflection being a demonic hellspawn.

Pretty appropriate, actually.

But not everything was fun and games...

 _Meanwhile, with Lori..._

The teenager slowly woke up and found herself in a pitch black area once more. However, the place felt... different, from the warehouse from before. This one felt like it had been used for immoral, unethic, and just plain wrong... experiments? Procedures?

But that lost meaning soon enough, for Lori was approached by a familiar figure: Bobby. "Hello, babe," he greeted in a genuinely sincere tone. "How do the ropes feel?"

Lori looked down and saw she had been tied to a chair, with ropes tied around her waist and feet, and her hands were handcuffed behind the chair as well. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't break free from them. Looks like whoever tied her up made sure to make the ropes tight enough to make escape impossible.

"Bobby, what is going on?!" Lori exclaimed, though it was hard to tell if she was angry or scared. Probably both. "One second I'm in the middle of the warehouse, and not I'm tied up, in a chair, in some place I can't even recognize!"

"I told you I was going to explain everything, and I'll keep my word," the teenager replied, grabbing Lori's cheek. "We're under the warehouse, the main headquarters for... one of the parts of Cristina's plan-"

"Cristina? That classmate of Lincoln's?" Lori asked, right before asking the true question: "What is she planning?"

"I would tell you, but I'm afraid Cristina will do that instead."

Bobby moved aside and allowed Lori to see a giant monitor turning on, with it's static illuminating the room as a chair turned around, and revealed Cristina sitting on it, scratching a porcelain cat on her lap.

"Greetings, Lorelei Loud," Cristina greeted with a condescending tone.

Lori, however, couldn't help but take a look at the percelain cat, which Cristina soon threw away. "I'm allergic to real cats, so this is the best I could come up with," she hastily explained as Carol Pingry came out of the shadows and approached Lori. "Now listen, while I explain what you're going to do, guess what? You're going to see a movie!"

Carol and Bobby then forced Lori's eyes open with pincers and covered her mouth with duct tape respectively, while Cristina got off the chair, kicked it away, and walked to Lori's side as the countdown started: 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

"I like to call it: The true extent of depravity," Cristina said with a smile.

And the "movie" begun...

 _Back at Dairyland..._

Lincoln stopped at a crossroad to catch his breath, which is where he caught a look at Ronnie waiting next to the tunnel of love. And just as a swan boat arrived to take the next two passengers, Lincoln went to Ronnie's side.

"Hi Ronnie," he greeted, and this time, the girl just rolled her eyes. Hey, that's better than no response at all. "So, Lana told me your message, and I have to ask, what do you want to tell me?"

But Ronnie just replied, "Let's get inside the tunnel first, Lincoln."

Linc shrugged and followed Ronnie into the swan boat, which soon apparently rode itself into the inside of the tunnel. The inside was primarily pink, with hearts all over the place, and the occasional cupid. Notably, both Lincoln and Ronnie felt uncomfortable, but while Ronnie looked at the water, Lincoln looked everywhere in an attempt to figure out what to say.

"Wow, I think this tunnel is trying to send a message," he blurted, lightly hitting Ronnie's shoulder twice. "What do you think, Ronnie?"

Ronnie didn't answer. She basically gave Lincoln the cold shoulder.

"Well, uh, what about those love arrows? Do you think they might be sharp?"

Same result, but the cold shoulder became even colder.

"Listen, Ronnie, I'm sorry that I hurt you, okay?" Lincoln confessed. "But if you want to get through this, you can't keep it to yourself. I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, so please, tell me what's wrong and I'll try to make it up for you.

By this point, it was pretty clear that Ronnie wasn't going to respond anytime soon. So Lincoln remained silent as well and decided to "enjoy" the ride with Ronnie. "Enjoy" in this context being to simply go with the flow. The cold, silent, upset flow.

But then, Ronnie went back to her seat and got close to Lincoln. She then grabbed his hand, hoping that some of his heat could be passed to her. Not that the tunnel was cold or anything, but with what's been going, Ronnie had felt... cold. Like she was just a shell of her former self, and she was freezing inside.

And then she spoke:

"Do you remember our first date?"

Lincoln was understandably confused by the question. "What?"

"Don't tell me a single kiss from Cristina made you forget what we had together," Ronnie said, putting her remaining hand in her pockets. "Remember, the French restaurant, trying to get my brother to date your sister? Those were the good old times..."

"Yeah, I remember how that went down," Linc remarked, brushing Ronnie's hair as he remembered. "I hurt your feelings, Bobby broke up with Lori over it, we went on a double date to deal with it, we kissed, our siblings reconciled, and we fake-broke up when my classmates mocked me about it. So many nice memories."

"And we've been dating ever since..." Ronnie paused, knowing what she would have to say next. She released Lincoln's hand, and leaned away... "But, if I can be honest with you, Lincoln... Cristina might use that to her advantage."

Suddenly, Lincoln grabbed Ronnie's hand with both of his own and gave her a worried look. He made it very clear that he was mortified by what he thought she was implying, but she quickly corrected herself, "I'm not saying she knows, of course, I'm saying that if she found out we were dating, she could use it to further her plans."

This didn't calm down Lincoln at all. In fact, thanks to the implications, it only made him more worried.

"You know about Cristina's plan?" Linc asked, his eyes opening wide.

Ronnie reluctantly nodded. They were in a private place, so she didn't need to be that secretive with him.

"Ronnie, please, you have to tell me what you know about Cristina's plan!" the boy pleaded, his tone dripping with desperation and fear. "My sisters-no, my whole family depends on figuring out how to deal with it and turn everything back to normal!"

As much as she would like to tell him everything, though... Ronnie couldn't do that. And not because she had no choice, but because him learning the truth would be far worse than simply keeping him in the dark about it.

So she took a deep breath, leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "I can't give you the specifics, but I can tell you the targets for her plan: All of Royal Woods, child, teenager, adult... her plan involves hurting all of them."

Lincoln's eyes' went wide once more. "W-What?!"

"I know it sounds bad, but it's pretty easy to deal with it," Ronnie said in a reassuring tone. "She has four subordinates: Storge, Eros, Philia and Agape. They all hold an important piece to her plan. If you or your family can get rid of them... you'll manage to give her some serious trouble carrying on with her plan."

Linc soon asked an important question: "But who are they, and how can I or my family deal with them?"

Ronnie flinched before answering, "T-That, I don't know, but..." the girl took a deep breath and grabbed Linc's hands with her remaining one. "Listen, Lincoln, things are complicated. All I can tell you is that, even if you don't end up doing anything about it, those four people will be dealt with, and Cristina's plan is bound to fail."

"...And I can tell you that I haven't forgotten about our relationship," Lincoln soon replied, giving Ronnie a sincere smile. "You're really important to me, Ronnie. And no matter what happens, I'll always love you-"

The boy released the girl's hand and covered his mouth, instantly realizing his mistake. Ronnie Anne, however, while looking surprised at first, soon blushed and showed a smile. "I... I love you too, Lincoln, no matter what," she replied. _"You're the only reason I'm even doing this, after all..."_

Lincoln blushed and returned the smile, with the tunnel going dark as Lincoln and Ronnie leaned closer towards each other...

...And by the time they had left the tunnel, the two hugged each other while engaging in a passionate kiss.

And Lincoln's younger sisters saw them. Lana covered her face with her hat, Lola took a picture of the kiss, Lisa gasped, and Lucy... well, she was trembling a little... and then she grabbed her head and clutched her stomach...

"Lucy, are you feeling okay?" Lisa inquired, noticing the emo's... state.

"I'm... Fine..." Lucy muttered, breathing heavily.

Lincoln and Ronnie soon separated once they saw Lucy like that. And while they were confused at first, Lincoln's confusion vanished the instant Lucy revealed her eye, which was blue... with a shield-like pupil.

"Oh no, the chip's effects are returning!" Linc exclaimed before jumping off the swan boat and running to restrain Lucy. "Ronnie, I don't have time to explain, but I need to take Lucy back home before she gets worse!"

"You should definitely go!" Ronnie stated, getting off the boat as well. "I mean, just to be sure, of course. And try to check your messages if possible."

"Got it!"

And so, the Louds immediately bolted back home and left Ronnie behind, who somberly looked at the sky and leaned against a wall.

 _Back with Lori..._

The giant monitor's screen turned back to the static, with the "movie" having finished a while ago. Cristina sat back at her chair, and gave Lori a smug look as Bobby and Carol stood by her side. "And that, is basically the plan. Do you understand now, dear Lori?"

Lori, for starters, had both tears and blood streaming down her cheeks, her eyes were bloodshot and her hair was a frenzied mess. In fact, her twitching was the only indication she was even conscious at the moment.

"Geez, this is really hard for me to watch," Bobby said, regarding Lori's current appearance.

Cristina handed Bobby a sleeping mask. "Here, save your eyes."

The boy immediately responded by smacking the redhead with it, with Carol giggling nearby. Cristina, surprisingly enough, didn't freak out over the attack, she just dusted herself and calmly said, "Okay, I deserved that," and then she added, "Bobby, please untie Lori."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Carol asked as Bobby went to do it. "I mean, I'm all for releasing the poor girl, but after what you told her, what you made her see, and what you're likely going to force her to do, I'm very sure she's going to try and murder you violently the instant she gets the chance."

"Don't worry, everybody who is first exposed to the truth is left too horrified to do anything about it," Cristina explained.

Once Bobby untied Lori, the girl slumped to the floor and shivered, just barely holding enough strength to get up. In fact, Bobby had to held her just to stop her from falling on the floor. "And she's no exception," the redhead finished with a smug tone.

While Cristina and Carol approached Lori, the girl grabbed her face and tried her hardest to catch her breath, with her trembling continuing as Bobby brushed her hair in an attempt to comfort her. For people her age, Lori probably shouldn't be surprised with what she saw. But for her, what she saw was stuff she was never meant to discover. Never meant to even realize existed, in fact.

"Old Storge, please hand Lori your powers," Cristina ordered, pointing at the disturbed teenager. "It's not like you're going to use them anymore, after all."

The teenager nodded, walked to Lori and gave her a smug smile as the teenager forced a defiant frown. "Now, don't take this as something personal, it's something that I have to do," Carol told Lori, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look at her. "You should understand, after all, since you've seen the truth."

And then, Carol grabbed Lori's shoulers, pulled her towards her and then planted a kiss on her lips. Her hands slowly went down Lori's arms before they grabbed her hands, to prevent the teenager from fighting back. However, Lori soon closed her eyes and decided to go with the flow before hugging Carol, while Cristina blushed and watched with malicious approval... and Bobby just... stared.

"I'm so confused right now," Bobby stated, folding his arms. "On the one hand, it's two girls making out, which is usually hot. On the other hand, one of those girls is my traumatized girlfriend, and the other is her superior. Am I supposed to find this hot?"

"Someone is bound to find this hot, even if _you_ don't," Cristina answered, almost as if she was speaking from experience.

"Do _you_ find _this_ hot?" Bobby scowled.

After a couple of seconds in silence, Cristina shook her head and said, "No, not in the slightest."

And then, the pair finally separated. As Lori caught her breath once more, Carol gently wiped off he blood and tears off the Loud's cheeks, and gave her a reassuring look. "Now remember, you can count on me, despite what the evidence to the contrary might say," Carol said as Cristina approached the duo. "Now, Cristina is ready to tell you what you're going to do now."

Once the redhead reached them, she revealed a small suitcase that she opened to reveal...

A dozen bracelets.

"These are friendship bracelets," Cristina answered, showing Lori a lime green ring. "Special friendship bracelets, that is. You see, these bracelets do something special when worn by certain people. Your current job is to deliver these bracelets to your sisters-and Lincoln-and make sure they keep them on for at least a day. Once a day passes, you may take them off."

Lori gave the redhead an angry, disgusted look. "Why am I not telling you what each bracelet specifically do?" the redhead guessed, earning a nod from Lori. "Because, dummy, if I told you what each bracelet did, you would do your best to avoid giving them to the right people. I've always been a fan of trial and error, it brings a lot of entertainment value, don't you think?"

The teenager clenched her teeth. "Now, would you kindly do your job once you get home?" Cristina asked.

Lori's eyes turned large and bright green as she answered, with a monotone... tone, "Yes, Cristina."

 _And now, a breather with Lynn..._

The sports fan repeatedly threw a ball against the wall with a bored look. She was currently outside, since she knew Lucy wouldn't like it if she threw her ball inside their room. Needless to say, throwing a ball on your own all alone wasn't exactly Lynn's idea of fun.

And then her phone rang. "Hello?" Lynn said upon answering the call.

"Lynn?" Ronnie asked from the other end.

"Ronnie Anne?" Lynn inquired, gaining a smile. "H-How did you get my number?"

"I kinda got it from Lincoln, but that's not important," the girl answered, making Lynn's smile grow wider. "Listen, I know we don't know each other at all, and you may even reject my proposition-"

"Well, yeah, I have to do that, I already promised Lucy I was going to marry her," Lynn joked, rolling her eyes.

"Haha, take this seriously," Ronnie stated, causing the athlete to flinch. "Listen, I'm not doing very good at my end, and I would like to know if you wouldn't mind if we... just played around for a moment? Maybe at the backyard, tomorrow?"

"Sure, let's do that," Lynn answered. "As long as nothing bad happens, we should have some fun!"

With that said and done, Lynn hung her phone and raised her fist victoriously.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

Mr. Loud and the rest of the younger Louds-and Lincoln-kicked the door open and helped Lucy go upstairs, with the emo shivering and grabbing her head even harder. "Lincoln..." she weakly uttered.

"What is it, Lucy?" Lincoln replied, growing worried for his sister.

Instead of a coherent response, Lucy simply said Lincoln's name repeatedly:

"Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln!"

"What?!" Linc screamed as everybody reached his room, wherein he grabbed Lucy's cheeks and said, "What do you want, Lucy?! What do you need me for?!"

Then, the emo got on her knees, grabbed Linc's arm with both of hers and requested, in a pleading tone and shedding tears:

"Marry me!"


	25. Returning Home

**Shout out to Hatoralo**

* * *

 _Back at the Loud House..._

Mr. Loud and the rest of the younger Louds-and Lincoln-kicked the door open and helped Lucy go upstairs, with the emo shivering and grabbing her head even harder. "Lincoln..." she weakly uttered.

"What is it, Lucy?" Lincoln replied, growing worried for his sister.

Instead of a coherent response, Lucy simply said Lincoln's name repeatedly:

"Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln!"

"What?!" Linc screamed as everybody reached his room, wherein he grabbed Lucy's cheeks and said, "What do you want, Lucy?! What do you need me for?!"

Then, the emo got on her knees, grabbed Linc's arm with both of hers and requested, in a pleading tone and shedding tears:

"Marry me!"

But deep in her eyes, Linc could see what she actually meant to say:

"Help me!"

"Quick! Boot up the game and put the helmet on her head!" Lincoln ordered.

And Lisa, Lola and Lana immediately obliged, with Lola helping Lincoln restrain Lucy while Lola boot up the game and Lisa put on the VR helmet on Lucy. Shortly after the game started, it revealed Lincoln was among the available beginner routes, and Lucy immediately picked him and found herself in his meeting place: the comic book store.

Over there, Virtual Lincoln leaned against a wall while reading a comic book, and completely failing to realize Lucy was nearby.

"Lincoln!" Lucy chirped, catching the virtual boy's attention.

"Oh hi, you must be new in town," Virtual Lincoln greeted, giving Lucy a friendly smile. "My name's Lincoln, what's yours?"

"L-Lu-" and then, Lucy decided against using her real name. It was a game, after all, people never use their real names in games. "Luthor!"

"Huh, kinda like the main villain in this comic," Linc said, gaining a slight frown. "So, what do you need?"

"I need you to marry me," Lucy answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I called dibs first!" Lynn shouted from afar.

A long silence came next... and was soon followed by Virtual Lincoln laughing, along with the progress bar filling up to 20%. "Man, you're one funny kid, you know that?" Virtual Lincoln remarked, wiping off his virtual tears.

 _"That's not how I would react!"_ Lincoln thought, clearly offended at the remark.

"Lincoln, if I can be honest with you, I've heard a lot about you," Lucy, and her character, said while shyly twiddling their fingers. "I would like to hang out with you, if you don't mind."

The progress bar turned to 60%. "Sure, let's go," Virtual Linc said, blushing and scratching the back of his head.

 _"I don't know which is more offensive, the fact that this is happening between a virtual version of me and my sister, or the fact that the game thinks I'm an easy boy!"_ Linc thought, putting his hands on his hips. _"And I'm most definitely not!"_

 _"Come on, Lucy, we know you're there somewhere,"_ Lisa requested, growing worried for her emo sister. _"Please, do something, anything to end up heartbroken... that sounds really wrong even in my head!"_

Up next, Lucy and Virtual Lincoln took a casual stroll, holding hands. To make matters worse, Virtual Lincoln's progress bar slowly filled up until it landed at 80%. And then, they sat down and watched the sunset.

"Lincoln... can I ask you something?" Lucy asked, blushing and twiddling her fingers.

The progress bar reached 99%. "Sure, what is it?"

 _"Oh no, she's almost done with the route!"_ Linc thought. _"Oh please, do something wrong, Lucy! And stop being such an easy boy, Virtual me!"_

But then, just as Lucy was about to speak, she paused, almost as if she was trying to figure out what to say. She smiled, got an idea, and immediately said:

"Would you marry me?"

Virtual Linc's progress bar... immediately plummeted into the negative progress, starting at -1%.

"W-What did you say?" Virtual lincoln asked, sounding genuinely shocked.

"Lincoln, I've heard so much about you, that I can't help but wish to be alongside you every day, every morning, every second of our existence," Lucy explained, grabbing Virtual Linc's hand and giving him a dreamy, lustful look. "Please, marry me, let me be your wife!"

"But you're a boy!" Virtual Linc exclaimed, slapping Lucy's hands away. "And besides, I'm not old enough to marry!"

The progress bar filled to -15%.

It looked like things could only get worse from there.

Perfect.

"Lincoln, think about this: We can build up something amazing! A family, with just as many kids as your sisters, it could end up being great!" Lucy argued, grabbing Virtual Lincoln's hand once more. "Please, don't you want to be happy with me?"

The bar filled up to 69% as Virtual Lincoln gave Lucy an angry glare. "I don't even know you!"

And then, Virtual Lincoln slapped Lucy, and she clashed with the real Lincoln, who held her as she touched her slapped cheek-now left with a red handprint-and whimpered as Virtual Lincoln snapped at her... and the negative bar promptly filled up to 99%.

"You don't know me, you barely just met me, and yet you want to marry me? To start a family? Are you crazy? Love is more complex than that. People are more complex than that. And what you want to do... is just shallow."

"But... I... Love you..." Lucy said with a nervous smile.

But Virtual Lincoln had a simple rebuttal:

"No, you don't."

He walked away, and the heartbroken screen appeared, followed by the game turning off. Soon afterwards, Lucy took off her helmet-followed by the virtual heart coming up in her head and snapping in half-and smiled for once. "How are you feeling, Lucy?" Linc asked as he helped the girl stand up.

"I feel much better now," the emo answered, brushing Lincoln's hair as he released her. "Thanks Lincoln."

And just as everybody rejoiced at having another sister saved, Lucy left the room. "Wait, where are you going?" Lisa asked.

Lucy stopped on her tracks, chuckled to herself and answered, "I have to go talk with Lynn,"

 _Lynn and Lucy's bedroom..._

Lynn threw a ball at the wall repeatedly with a bored look, mostly 'cause she couldn't really do anything else. Luna and Luan were busy, Leni was stuck on patrol, and Lori still hadn't returned home. But then, a voice spoke:

"I missed you."

The sports fan turned around and saw Lucy, standing at the door and showing a sincere smile. Also, she was crying. "Lucy?" Lynn blurted as the emo approached her, arms folded and trembling. "What happened?"

"I got heartbroken by Lincoln," Lucy answered.

Lynn flinched, but soon composed herself. "How do you feel?" she asked.

The pale girl took a deep breath before giving Lynn a hug. And it wasn't just a short hug either, Lucy deliberately held Lynn as tight as possible to keep the hug going for a long time, all while the sports fan processed what happened.

"I feel... like myself," Lucy whispered to Lynn's ear as she shed a single tear. "Hurt and broken... but myself..."

After saying that, the duo remained silent for a while before Lynn returned the hug and whispered back, with great joy, "I'm glad to have you back, sis."

 _Back downstairs..._

Lori, still holding the box containing the friendship bracelets, entered the house and closed the door as Carol-through an earpiece Lori was wearing-spoke to her. _"Okay, Junior, just save the box somewhere that won't wind up being easily discovered. The boss doesn't want you to give everybody the friendship bracelets yet."_

"I already told you not to call me Junior!" Lori growled, rolling her eyes.

"Who are you talking to?"

Lori frozen in place and turned around to see Leni, giving her an angry look with crossed arms. This felt familiar.

 _"Good job, Junior, you got unwanted attention!"_ Carol reprimanded.

Lori rolled her eyes at the remark before nervously trying to get on Leni's good side. "Hi Leni!" she greeted, but Leni just narrowed her eyes. "Sorry for taking longer to return home than usual, but Bobby and his associate requested me to take a box back home, and I... kinda got lost on my way back home."

"Are you okay?" Leni raised an eyebrow.

Oh how much Lori wished to tell Leni how bad she felt. The horrors, the images, the truth, all that and more. But alas, she had a mission and couldn't reveal anything yet. Besides, Angry Leni is Worst Leni. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Good, now show me what's inside the box," Leni ordered.

 _"Go ahead, Junior, show her what's in the box. It's not like your Dom can guess what they are for anyway,"_ Carol said cautiously.

So Lori and Leni went to a nearby table and, once Lori put the box on the table, she opened it to reveal the friendship bracelets. Leni, instead of being surprised or impressed, was flabbergasted.

"Are those... friendship bracelets?" Leni asked in an "are you serious?" tone.

"Yep, I made them myself on my spare time," Lori hastily answered before reaching for a pair of bracelets. "Since we're all basically cured of the forced lesbianism now, I figured we could wear these to prove we'll never be more than friends and family."

But the blonde knew there had to be more. "And how was your visit with Bobby and his associate?"

"Well, it was okay, I guess," Lori shrugged. "Sadly, while they did provide me answers, they couldn't give me anything that I could tell you, so-"

"Oh no, you're not hiding more secrets from me, Lori!" Leni snapped, but Lori wasn't even fazed. "You've kept your fair share of secrets already! Besides, you promised me you would tell me what answers you got!"

"And I promised Lola that I wouldn't do anything, and yet, she'll soon face retribution for that," Lori replied with a smug smile. "Listen, what they told me... was horrible. Disgusting, even. And I wouldn't want my siblings to suffer the same shock and horror I suffered as they told me about the truth."

But Leni didn't give up. "Well, did you find out anything that you can tell me?"

After remaining silent for a moment, Lori finally caved in:

"Bobby is in cahoots with Cristina."

 _Back at the Underground HQ..._

Cristina attempted to find a way to look threatingly while stroking the porcelain cat, when she was approached by Ronnie Anne. "Cristina, I need to request you something," she said in a blunt tone.

The redhead put the porcelain cat aside, got off the chair and walked to Ronnie with her arms folded, "You know, something tells me you want to request me something that I might or might not want to do," Cristina remarked. "But alright, tell me what you-"

"I want you to get Bobby out of this whole mess!" Ronnie ordered.

"...Would you kindly explain why I should do that?" Cristina requested, raising an eyebrow.

Ronnie's eyes turned bright green as she spoke in monotone: "I'm worried that Bobby will end up getting hurt, or get himself hurt while trying to keep me out of harms way. I never wanted him to get involved with this stuff anyway, he simply decided to jump right into this mess once he discovered I was involved. And if he gets hurt, I swear I'll make you-"

"Okay, that's enough," Cristina snapped her fingers.

Ronnie immediately turned back to normal, and gave Cristina an angry look. "You do realize that, if I take him out of the Four Lovers, I have to replace him with a close-enough equivalent, right?" the redhead explained as Ronnie backed away a little. "The plan can't be done without all Four Lovers."

"I know, and I have your replacement ready."

Clyde emerged from the shadows. "Hi, what's up?" he greeted, nervously twiddling his fingers.

"Clyde over here will take over Bobby's duties," Ronnie explained, with Clyde barely getting the chance to ask "what?" before she added, "Now take my brother out of this mess!"

Cristina, however, just chuckled and shook her head. "So you would rather put Lincoln's best friend in danger, rather than your more-than-capable brother?" she summarized before laughing, then abruptly stating, "Your pragmatism impresses and disgusts me."

But Ronnie just narrowed her eyes. "Fine, I'll tell Bobby that he's been replaced later," the tomboy stated before turning to Clyde and saying, with a hint of regret, "As for you, Clyde, are you ready?"

"I just want to make something clear again," the black boy stated, flinching as he gave Cristina a glare. "I'm only agreeing to help you, on the condition that-" he stuttered as the redhead returned the glare, only hers was anything but an empty threat. "L-Lori and L-Lincoln don't get hurt anymore!"

"As long as neither Lincoln nor Lori's pain benefit the plan, they'll be fine," the redhead clarified, right before grabbing Ronnie's arm and dragging her. "Now if you don't mind, Ronnie and I have an important business to attend to-"

"Would you kindly cancel this whole operation?" Clyde requested, waving his hand in front of the redhead's face.

Cristina simply gave Clyde a "Seriously?" look, followed by the boy awkwardly saying, "It was worth a shot."

The redhead didn't even bother to give Clyde's comment a reply, she simply left alongside Ronnie.

 _A significant amount of time later, at Dairyland Amoosement Park..._

Mr. Loud-along side Lisa, Lola, Lana and Lucy-sat in first row at the Blarney Rangers show, where they watched the customed actors fight against living personifications of negative qualities of humanity-A.K.A also customed actors-in an interval before the real event started.

"I'm so happy Lincoln took us to the Blarney Rangers show after all!" Lana exclaimed.

"Yeah, isn't Lincoln awesome?" Lisa replied, earning a humored look from Lana. "What?"

"You said Lincoln was awesome!" Lana said in a sing-song tone.

The little genius hastily blushed and turned away, stating "Shut up!" in her defense.

"Although, now that you mention him, where's Lincoln anyway?" Lola asked, taking a look around. "He was supposed to be sitting somewhere close to us, wasn't he?"

"He said he had something to take care of first, but he would watch from somewhere nearby," Mr. Loud explained.

 _"I sure hope he makes good on his promise,"_ Lisa thought.

 _Meanwhile, with Lincoln..._

The boy relaxed on a bench close to the show stage while trying to read a comic of the Blarney Rangers. Keyword being try.

"I'm still baffled as to why Lola, Lana and apparently Lisa like Blarney, and specially how he got the Blarney Rangers sub-franchise to even be a thing," Lincoln remarked... and continued to read the comic book.

And then, a woman came out of the studio... with Mrs. Johnson by her side, who watched as she spoke with someone on the phone. "What do you mean the actor for the personification of Lazyness got sick? Today's the show!" the lady growled before the phone hung up. "Great, now who will play the personification of lazyness?"

Mrs. Johnson spotted Lincoln and smiled as she got an idea. She walked to the boy and caught his attention with some simple words: "Hi Lincoln."

The boy was understandably surprised to see his teacher out of the school. "Mrs. Johnson?! What are you doing here?"

"Cristina's a fan of the Blarney Rangers, so I figured getting a part-time job, and put a bit more money in my wallet," the teacher answered with a chuckle. "Now listen, the actor that was going to play Indolence got sick, would you like to replace him?"

The boy scratched his chin, almost as if he was seriously considering it...

 _Back at the Stage..._

"Alright, fans of Blarney Rangers!" shouted an announcer from a bunch of speakers.

The Louds-except Lucy-got up and cheered.

"Slightly older fans of Blarney Rangers!"

Cristina, and a couple of other people, got up and cheered.

"And people who aren't necessarily fans, but were dragged into this event by your friends anyway!"

Lucy and Ronnie said "Yay" in monotone tones.

"We apologize for the intermission, but now we're ready to bring you: The Blarney Rangers, vs. the personification of lazyness, Indolence!"

Nearly everybody cheered as, in the middle of the arena, a large circle appeared and from there came out Lincoln, wearing his normal clothes and a pair of red goggles. He was also reading the script of the play.

"Lord Indolence, it's good to see you again," the female minion said as she and the remaining minions bowed down to Linc's presence. "We've managed to deter the enemy forces from escaping, and the Blarney Rangers are exhausted from fighting our endless army."

"Good job, I guess," Linc replied, not even looking at the minion. "I'll take it from here."

And so, the minion actors vanished and the Blarney Rangers stood their ground while Lincoln... remained in place and continued to read the script. "So, I'm guessing you're all gathered here to stop my plan or whatever?"

"Yes we are, you vile evildoer!" Blarney Ranger Red heroically proclaimed. "We will stop you from preventing people from being active and encourage them to be lazy!"

"Seriously? You think that counts as an evil plan?" Lincoln chuckled. "Man, you superheroes have lower standards for what is considered evil than I expected."

And as Lincoln rolled his yes and laughed once more, the audience remained silent, as if they were too baffled by what was going on... but at least the Louds-and Cristina-seemed to enjoy the show.

 _One show later..._

Lincoln and the rest of the Louds went back home... while Lisa and Lana gushed over Lincoln, with him covered in kisses and autographs.

"When did you become part of this thing?!" Lisa inquired, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Mrs. Johnson offered me the role and I accepted it," Linc answered.

"Can I get your autograph?!" Lana asked.

"I already signed over a dozen autographs already, girls, give my arms some time to rest!"

And as Linc continued to be showered in praise and awe by the genius and tomboy, Lola watched from behind, looking pretty annoyed at the attention Lincoln was getting. Not that she wasn't known for not sharing the spotlight.

 _Meanwhile, at the Loud House..._

Lori slept peacefully in her and Leni's bed when Leni got up, walked to Lori's own bed and looked underneath it. There she found the box with the friendship bracelets, and as she took it out, Lori woke up and soon saw what was going on. "Hey, what are-!"

"Would you kindly go back to sleep?" Leni requested with a smug smile.

Suddenly, Lori's eyes flashed blue and she promptly fell deep asleep. With that done, Leni smiled again before opening the box. And then the voice spoke to her:

 _"You should take the red one, trust me, it will help you more than you think..."_

And as the bracelets glimmered, Leni's smile grew wider and more devious...

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

But no matter how hard he tried, Linc couldn't take off the bracelet. "They also have built-in systems to prevent anybody from manually removing them," Lynn added.

"And how do we get rid of these things?!" Lincoln desperately asked.

"That I managed to find out as well, and it turns out to be rather easy to accomplish," the sports fan remarked, rolling her eyes. "All we need to do is be ourselves."


	26. Friendship Bracelets

_The next day..._

Lori woke up to see Leni giving her a malicious grin, with a closer look at her lower body revealing she had the red friendship bracelet on her arm. Lori also saw she was wearing the pink friendship bracelet on her arm too, and worst of all, she couldn't take it off.

"L-Leni, what happened?!" Lori asked, sounding genuinely terrified.

"Oh please, don't tell me you're trying to play innocent now," Leni said with a cackle. "I found your friendship bracelets, and I remembered you brought them for a reason. I figured you wanted to give them to our siblings."

And then, Leni leaned forward and whispered, "Jokes on you: I already did it."

Lori tried to attack afterwards, but her punch stopped right in front of Leni's face, with her strength lowering down until she felt her fist too heavy to keep up. It' almost as if she was being forcefully weakened so as to make something possible.

"W-What is the meaning of this?!" Lori asked before showing her bracelet to her sister in desperation. "Leni, please, take this thing off!"

But Leni just smirked and grabbed Lori's cheek. "Oh please, I haven't even had my fun with you yet."

Leni got up, followed by her pulling Lori up, and then pinned her against a wall as she cried, "L-Leni, j-just hear me out, if this is about something I did to you, then there are better ways than using the bracelets!"

"Lori, Lori, Lori..." Leni chuckled, with a hint of exasperation. "This isn't just about me and you, It's about all of us. All of our siblings. Every single one of them."

Lori just raised an eyebrow as Leni then grinded her knee against Lori's crotch, almost as if she was getting ready to kick it.

"Ever since you got a sister, you acted like a bossy little brat. You have been determined, to make sure all of us believe that you're above us, whenever we started to go out of control. And that would be fine, if you kept it at that."

And then, her voice grew hostile as she grinded harder.

"But you didn't stop just there. You continued to boss everybody around, even when we were perfectly calm. And then, you had the nerve, the audacity, to join up with the enemy. To become Cristina's puppet, and help her with whatever plan she has going on. Do you really think you will get off so easily?"

Leni then punched Lori's face hard enough to give her a black eye.

"How did I figure it out, you ask? Please, how else would you get brainwashing friendship bracelets?"

Lori quickly tried to explain herself, "But I'm only doing this-"

But Leni quickly punched her mouth shut, causing her to bite her tongue in the process. "You're only doing this to exert more control over all of us, nothing else! You are a sucker for power! If something gave you the chance to show you are the dominant, then you would take it, disregarding the consequences!"

And then, she finally did it: Leni kicked Lori in the groin, sending a shiver up Lori's spine as she couldn't help but shed tears of agony. Not that Leni minded, after all, this was her one and only chance to vent against the girl who treated her and many others like servants for so long. No time to share Lori's pain, not at all!

"L-Leni..." Lori stuttered and caught her breath as Leni released her, letting her slide down and land on the ground. She shivered and tried to hold back her tears. "I'm-I'm sorry, okay? For everything I did. For being such a... bossy bitch. But, I... I just don't know what to do..."

Leni crouched and met Lori face-to-face. "What are you talking about?"

"In a family as big as this, it's hard to stand out from the crowd," the blonde cried as her voice got breathy, with some whimper and sobbing thrown into the mix. "You and the others are covered, but I... I have nothing to stand out. If it wasn't for my phone obssession, or my relationship with Bobby, you would always forget me, just like how everybody forgets about Lucy all the time."

Leni instinctively looked around, almost as if she was expecting Lucy to pop up at any moment.

"But, the truth is... I'm just doing everything for our sake. For the family's sake!" Lori exclaimed, catching Leni's attention once more. "I know, Cristina's plan is messed up and has brought us nothing but trouble, but I honestly believe it's the best case scenario!"

But that wasn't enough for Leni. "Then tell me: what is her plan?"

 _Meanwhile, with Luna and Luan..._

Luna, with the brown bracelet, and Luan, with the purple bracelet, slowly woke up and the bracelets almost immediately took their effect on the girls.

"Huh, I'm noticing a lack of animals in this room!" Luna exclaimed, before looking out the window and spotting a puddle of- "Mud!"

And then she jumped off the window and landed on the puddle, with Luan coming to see her soon afterwards. And as soon as she could confirm it was Luna playing in the mud, she shrugged it off, went to her guitar and started to play it like an absolute pro.

Well, she was taught by Luna after all.

One can only wonder what Lincoln and Lisa would say about the sight.

 _Speaking of Lincoln and Lisa..._

Lincoln, wearing the white bracelet, woke up and soon noticed something peculiar: Lisa, wearing the lime green bracelet, sleeping next to him with a sleeping mask.

"Ugh, hoodies... white jeans... socks with sandals!" the little genius said in her sleep.

"Lisa?" Linc asked.

This woke up Lisa, who immediately shouted, "Ah gosh, I'm blind!"

And then Lincoln took off her sleeping mask. "Oh, like, good morning, Lincoln!" Lisa chirped. "Thanks for giving me the ability to see again!"

And then Lisa fell asleep again. "Did Lisa just act like Leni?" he pondered. "What's next, Lucy acting like Lynn and vice versa?"

 _Yeah, regarding Lucy and Lynn..._

Lucy, wearing the sky blue bracelet, spoke with somebody on the phone. "And I'm like, literally amazed by what they say about it!" she said, sounding annoyed in a less emo-tional and more emotional tone than usual. "I mean, my poem is literally the deepest poem in that whole club, and yet they still I'm not dark or edgy enough, can you believe it?"

And then, Lynn, wearing the dark green bracelet, made some calculations while writing something on a blackboard. "This is a troubling revelation indeed," she said with a lisp. "I sure hope Lana and Lola haven't been affected too badly."

 _Cue Lana and Lola..._

Lana, wearing the gret bracelet, sat on her bed, with her baseball cap covering her eyes as she read a poem. "Dark as night, shiny as coin, my life has reached the apex of torment, and nothing will make it worse, not even the most dangerous of thunderstorms."

And then Lola, with the yellow bracelet, popped out of nowhere and sprayed her twin sister with a fake flower in a way similar to rain. "Sorry to _rain_ on your parade!" the diva said, giggling at her joke. "Get it?"

 _"I spoke too soon,"_ Lana thought.

 _Later, at the Living Room..._

Lincoln, with Lisa clinging at his leg, walked downstairs and met with most of his sisters-minus Lori and Leni-who all stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him.

Alongside their shivering, their blushing cheeks and seemingly forced smiles, Lincoln could also see that Luna was dirty, Luan was not scared of the guitar, Lola had a flower on her dress, Lana's eyes were covered, Lynn was in the middle of an analysis and Lucy was holding a phone.

"Okay, so most of you clearly changed to act like somebody else," Lincoln remarked, scratching his head. "But what about Leni and Lori?"

As if on cue, both teenagers went downstairs, with Lori looking at herself on a mirror while Leni played with a football. "It's such a hard job to look so majestically fabulous!" Lori exclaimed.

"Hey, who wants to play some ball later?" Leni asked, raising her football.

Lincoln, clearly disturbed by the event, turned to Lynn and asked, "Lynn, what's going on?"

"According to my calculations, it seems that our changes in behavior can be traced to these friendship bracelets," Lynn explained, before showing her bracelet. "They, like the VR helmets, seem to have the primary purpose of rewiring specific parts of the brain to recreate behavior patterns into different patterns that wouldn't otherwise be seen in the affected."

"What?" everybody asked.

"They brainwash the user into acting differently than they normally are."

Everybody went "oh" in realization. "Well then, let's take them off!" Lincoln suggested.

But no matter how hard he tried, Linc couldn't take off the bracelet. "They also have built-in systems to prevent anybody from manually removing them," Lynn added.

"And how do we get rid of these things?!" Lincoln desperately asked.

"That I managed to find out as well, and it turns out to be rather easy to accomplish," the sports fan remarked, rolling her eyes. "All we need to do is be ourselves."

But Lincoln, understandably, had no idea what she was talking about, "Wait, what are you-"

And Lynn soon clarified:

"In order to get rid of these bracelets, we must be ourselves. That means we must fight against their influence, and act how we usually do to such an extent, that the bracelets will short circuit and be rendered powerless. Only then will we be able to go back to normal."

"Huh, sounds easy enough," Lincoln remarked as Leni kicked the football straight at Lynn.

However, just as Lynn tried to kick it back, her bracelet sent a shock all across her body before forcefully making her dodge the ball, wait until it hit the floor, then grab it and return it to Leni.

"Okay, so it sounds easy but it's hard to do," Linc said before looking at his own bracelet. "Now, what does my bra-?"

And then, the sisters surrounded Lincoln with goo-goo eyes.

 _"Uh oh."_

 _At the Santiago Household..._

Ronnie and Cristina seemingly discussed about the plan when Ronnie's phone rang. She immediately answered it, and saw it was Lincoln calling, "Hello?"

"Ronnie, I'm coming to your house, my sisters are chasing after me!" Lincoln exclaimed from the other end. "But it's not what you think! I think they're infatuated with me! Just open the door, I'm coming!"

The duo went to the nearby window, and saw Lincoln running towards the house while a goo-goo eyed sisternado followed him. Upon seeing this, Cristina bolted to upstairs as Ronnie went to the door and opened it, letting Lincoln inside before closing the door just as the sisternado came closer.

The resulting clash between the sisternado and the door caused the sisternado to explode back into it's component sisters, who all fell unconscious as Lincoln closed all the nearby windows as he caught his breath. "Thanks, Ronnie," he told the girl. "I don't know why or how, but my sisters became attracted to me after I put on this white bracelet!"

 _"Sadly, I do know how and why that's the case,"_ Ronnie thought, even though she said, "Oh, well, that's an interesting... uh, issue?"

"Yeah, and a pretty big problem as well," Lincoln sat down on the couch. "And worst of all, I can't take off this thing!"

Ronnie watched as Lincoln tried to take off the bracelet, only for it to remain stuck on his arm. "Now, I do know how to get it to short-circuit, according to Lynn all I have to do is be myself, but I'm already myself, so I can't do that!" Lincoln whined. "Ronnie, what would you do?"

"Well, first of all, I would not bother my best friend with questions regarding stuff I'm not even aware of," Ronnie answered as she sat next to Lincoln. "And second of all, I would at the very least try to explain what's going to my friend, who most definitely has no idea what's going on."

"I wish I could do that, but I'm just as confused as you," Lincoln answered. "Even with what you told me about Cristina and her plan, I just don't see how using these bracelets fit into it."

Ronnie flinched, almost as if she was worried. "What makes you think Cristina is involved with the bracelets?"

"Forced changes of behavior plus equals Cristina being behind this," Lincoln summarized.

And he was definitely onto something.

"Okay, how about we don't focus on that right now?" Ronnie suggested. "I mean, uh, you need to take a break from all the weirdness that must have happened, and since it seems you can't be near your sisters without driving them crazy, they can take a break too."

Lincoln, not really feeling up to discovering what was Ronnie's deal, shrugged and got off the couch. "Maybe you're right, my sisters and I need a break from this mess," he remarked.

And as Ronnie wrapped her arm around Lincoln's shoulder and patted him in comfort, she couldn't help but feel like Lincoln would soon become a pain in her butt.

 _Meanwhile, with the sisters..._

The Loud sisters got up and dusted themselves as they soon realized where they were. "Huh, what are we, like, doing in the Santiago household?" Lisa asked, scratching her head.

"All I remember is a single light appearing in the black void that is my life," Lana answered, blushing with a smile.

"It's just as I feared," Lynn remarked before taking out a couple of notes. "I first only thought of this as a possibility, but it seems that, just as our bracelets change our personalities, Lincoln's bracelets also change us into feeling attracted to Lincoln himself. The longer we stay close to him, the faster we turn into mindless Lincoln lovers"

"What could that mean?" Luna asked as she rolled around the mud.

"Maybe Lincoln could know," Lola said, right before adding, "Or should I say, Lin-could know?"

And as she giggled and the rest of the sisters-including Luan-groaned in frustration, Lola added, "Get it?"

Which was followed by Luan attempting to giggle, and then promptly being shocked by her bracelet. And she wasn't the only one shocked, as she figuratively shocked her sisters, with Lynn in particular looking pretty pleased.

"Good, Luan, that was a nice attempt, but you will have to try harder in order to go back to normal," the forcefully smart athlete remarked. "And now, we have to go back home. The more far away we are from Lincoln, the better we can attempt to not only turn ourselves back to normal, but also give Lincoln some breathing space."

And all the sisters agreed, and followed Lynn back home as the athlete made some further calculations. "Okay, so if we want to return back to normal, we're going to need help," she told to her sisters. "We need to find some guy that knows how we tend to act, but who is not Lincoln, so we don't end up going goo-goo eyed for him."

And then they all thought for a bit...

 _At the McBrides..._

Clyde heard the door being repeatedly banged, and opened it to find... a pizza delivery guy outside. So he paid the guy, took the pizza, closed the door... and reopened it when he heard it being knocked again, with the Loud sisters standing outside this time.

"Hi, Clyde!" they greeted in unison.

"Hi, I was expecting you," Clyde replied. "Come in, I got some pizza."

The sisters immediately went inside at the mention of the pizza, and Clyde put it down and allowed the girls to eat it whole as he leaned against a wall and said, "So, a little bird told me that you got some bracelets that made you act differently than usual."

"How come Walt seems to be more than happy to literally give people all sorts of information except us?!" Lucy complained, throwing her arms into the air.

"Yeah, I figured that Lucy would end up acting like Lynn, not like Lori," Clyde said, sounding slightly disturbed at the fact. "Although, I do have to wonder, who put the bracelets on your arms?"

"Didn't the little bird tell you about that, too?" Leni asked, and was immediately shocked by the bracelet.

"No, that was one of the things that they decided to leave out of the information they gave me," the boy sighed. "But I guess I shouldn't try to ask you stuff you know nothing about. Have any of you found out how to undo the changes?"

"We just have to act like ourselves to an extent that the bracelets will short circuit," Lynn answered before trying to swallow her pizza slice in one go.

"And how long did it take you to figure that out, Lynnsa?" Clyde chuckled.

"No time at all, 'cause you see, I have Lisa's intellect for a reason," Lynn remarked, right before being shocked by her bracelet. "Anyway, can you help us deal with this issue?"

"Well, I'm not exactly sure if you're going to agree, but I had an idea that might help us resolve this little problem," Clyde then sat next to the girls and explained, "It's still in the planning stages, so it might not work, but we could make an obstacle course and make you go through courses representing what you truly like, and as you try to complete it and act like yourselves, the bracelets will eventually short-circuit."

"Hmm... It's plausible..." Lynn remarked, scratching her chin.

"Okay, so, can you help me build it?" Clyde asked.

The sisters exchanged looks, and then promptly nodded in return. "One question, though, why do you have plans for these handy?" Lisa inquired. "I mean, even if the bird told you about our problem, it would take you, like, a long time to come up with such a plan, don't you think?"

"Do you want to be cured, or not?" Clyde replied.

The sisters begrudgingly nodded. And then Clyde took out some tools.

"Then let's get this started!" the boy excitedly exclaimed.

 _Back at the Santiago Household..._

At Ronnie's bedroom, Cristina frantically looked around for a place to hide as she heard Ronnie and Lincoln coming to the room. "Hey, Lincoln, I have to clean up my room, how about you go back downstairs and wait until I'm done?" Ronnie suggested, sounding slightly nervous.

"Sure, why not," Lincoln replied.

And soon enough, Ronnie barged into the room, slammed the door shut and barked at Cristina, "Are you still out in the open?! If you don't want Lincoln to squeeze every single bit of information out of you, then I suggest you hide somewhere and quick!"

The redhead looked around some more, and finally decided to hide in the closet. "Why do I get the feeling this is more appropriate than it looks?" Ronnie asked while looking at the reader.

Then she quickly cleaned the room and whistled for Lincoln to come in. Once he went inside, what he saw was the closet closed shut and Ronnie, standing next to her bed with a nervous smile and her arms folded.

"So, what do you think?" Ronnie asked, looking left and right.

"It's a nice room, I guess," Linc replied as he walked closer to the girl. "Now, Ronnie, there's something I would like to discuss with you."

And then, both kids sat down on the bed and Cristina leaned closer to the closet door, hoping to hear what they were going to say.

"Listen, sometimes I can't help but feel that Cristina will hurt everybody to reach her unfathomable plan," Lincoln started, twiddling his fingers. "And that gave me an idea... what if she tries to hurt you and me next? What if she tries to make our relationship be burned to ashes, and then force us into relationships we want no part of?"

Ronnie flinched at the question, mostly because she was surprised Lincoln had reached such a conclusion. Granted, taking into account of the stuff that happened before, it was just a matter of time before he reached such a conclusion, but why did he had to reach it this early?

Sadly enough, Lincoln continued:

"I mean, don't take it as me being pessimistic but... seeing what she done to my sisters," and then he looked at his bracelet, "And what she has done to me... I can't help but be worried about us. Our relationship. What do you think?"

At this point, Ronnie fell silent as she tried to think of what to say next. On the one hand, she couldn't tell Lincoln about the plan, nor could he discover she was working with Cristina on it. But on the other hand, he did raise a pretty good point, and Cristina did seem like the kind of person who would go to the extremes to achieve her goal...

So she did the next best thing: she hugged him.

"Don't worry, Lame-O," Ronnie said in a reassuring tone. "If that ever ends up being the case, I'll make sure to give Cristina the biggest, harshest beating she's ever received in her life."

Lincoln's frown slowly turned into a smile as, for once, he actually felt like things were going his way. As if he could trust Ronnie, not that he had no reason to trust her before, but with all that's happened, his mind started to fill with doubts. Oh if only he knew...

But nevertheless, he returned the hug as he replied, sounding hopeful for once:

"I hope so, Ronnie."

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"So, Cristina's mother, huh? How did a halfway decent woman, at least from the look of it, gave birth to such an annoying, obnoxious little brat like Cristina?" Leni pondered out loud. "Anyhow, what is so important that you need to speak to me? Can't you wait until my other sisters are finished with their business, or even better, call them instead?"

"No, because you are explicitly in Cristina's plan!" Mrs. Johnson snapped.

The teenager's eyes grew wide for a moment, before she narrowed them in contemplation. So the little redheaded brat had some use for Leni after all.

"I'm listening," Leni answered.


	27. Johnson Investigations

_Back at the Johnson Household..._

Mrs. Johnson took a deep breath as she walked to Cristina's bedroom and went inside, only to find a bunch of papers once she started to look around.

 _"Okay, it's time to check, once again, and see if I can manage to find more clues about Cristina's plan,"_ Mrs. Johnson thought to herself as she searched the papers. _"You know what they say, Agnes, third time's the charm!"_

For most of her search, she failed to find anything she hadn't found before: pictures of Lincoln and Ronnie together, sums to determine how much the helmets and chips would cost to make, and so on. However, she quickly found something new: a plan regarding the bracelets, which basically involved Leni using them to break her family.

"I'm always baffled as to how Cristina expects some of her plans to work," Mrs. Johnson remarked as she took a closer look at the plan. "Trusting certain variables, and a Loud one at that, simply sounds like something that's bound to fail."

And then she stepped on something that made a notable "crack" sound. Once she looked at the ground, she saw crumbs of chocolate chip cookies, and even a package of them nearby.

"Weird, I don't remember ever buying chocolate chip cookies," the redheaded woman thought as she grabbed and inspected the package. "And I most definitely never bought them from this "Cookie Inc" mentioned..."

And then the doorbell rang downstairs. Once the woman went down and opened the door, she found a little girl outside, holding a package of chocolate chip cookies.

"Here's your weekly delivery of chocolate chip cookies!" the little girl enthusiastically greeted before extending her hand. "That will be 20 dollars, please."

"I didn't order anything," Mrs. Johnson answered, crossing her arms and giving the girl a stern look.

"Wait, who are you?" the girl asked.

The woman stood silent before bluntly saying, "Agnes Johnson."

"Oh, sorry, is there a "Cristina Johnson" in here?" the girl asked, scratching the back of her head. "She's the one who made the order."

And that was when Mrs. Johnson realized why she was always short of 20 dollars at least once a week since the past few months. So she wasn't going to waste any more money. "Well, you can take your cookies and-"

"Have I mentioned that I have other flavors? Like coconut and grapefruit?" the girl bargained, narrowing her eyes and raising her eyebrows suggestively.

The woman stopped talking and thought about it. And literally a second later, the woman was sitting at her couch, eating some coconut cookies.

 _"Curse those scout girls and their persuasion skills,"_ she thought. _"Although, at least I now know I have to ground Cristina for wasting my money on these cookies. I mean they're pretty good, but weekly deliveries? Get real!"_

And then, once she got up, the woman remembered what she had to do and resumed her search for clues to Cristina's endgame. Luckily, this eventually lead her to the closet, where she found some mimicry books inside.

No sign of Cristina's orientation, though.

So the woman took the books and gave them a closer look, before she found even more papers, this time based around the manners and attitudes of each of the Loud sisters. Most were clear and direct, though Luan and Lola's papers were filled with some... Colorful language and insults.

"Just as I feared, she's become more rude after the incident," Mrs. Johnson remarked, shaking her head in disapproval. "I'm still not any closer to finding any new information, though."

And then she noticed a particularly large paper. Mostly because it wasn't just an ordinary paper, they were blueprints for something called "ghoul serum."

"Now what is this?!" Mrs. Johnson thought in horror, right before taking out her phone. "I definitely need to get an answer out of that child right now!"

 _Meanwhile, back at the Santiago household..._

The redhead watched with delight as Ronnie Anne and Lincoln continued to talk, with the boy listening as the loving bully told him one of her tall tales. It was times like this that gave Cristina some levity from her overly-complex plans.

So, of course, her phone just had to rang in that exact moment.

"What's that?" Lincoln inquired as he turned to the closet.

Then, Ronnie pulled Lincoln back to her and saw her open her mouth at the beat of the phone, up until Cristina finally answered the call. "I, uh, can mimic the noise that comes up in a phone when somebody gets a call!" Ronnie hastily explained, brushing the back of her head. "What do you think?"

After a couple seconds in silence, Lincoln smiled and said, "Ronnie, you're so full of surprises!"

And with the redhead's existence still a secret, she answered the call and lowered the volume as much as possible without muting it. "Hello?" Cristina greeted in a whisper. "I'm kind of busy at the Santiagos."

"What are you even doing at the Santiago household?" Mrs. Johnson asked from the other line. "Anyway, I found some blueprints from something called the ghoul serum, and I want to know what exactly you plan to use that thing with?"

"Listen up, mom, there's something important right here and I don't need you to bother me with asking stuff that's none of your business!" Cristina growled in the quietest tone possible. "Now please, keep snooping around all you want, but don't call me again!"

So the redhead hung her phone and went back to seeing Lincoln and Ronnie talk.

And back with Mrs. Johnson, she figured calling Cristina again wouldn't work, so she called Bobby instead. "Hello?" the teenager greeted.

"Bobby, my daughter is apparently in your house, do you mind being a darling and taking her back here?" Mrs. Johnson replied.

"I'm sorry, but Ronnie really doesn't like it when I go into her room, and I get the feeling Cristina's basically there, which means... Well, I guess you get it," the teen replied, causing the woman to pinch her nose in frustration. "How's everything else going, though? Got any new information?"

"Cristina apparently commissioned, or at least drew the blueprints, for something called the ghoul serum, whatever it is," the woman answered. "What about you? Got anything?"

"Not really, although Ronnie seems to have been pretty affected from when Lincoln kissed your daughter," Bobby answered, no doubt bringing back some unfortunate memories from the incident. "Speaking of which, how bad was it? I never really thought about it up to this point, but... Well, I just want to know how was everybody else affected."

Seeing as she would have to remember that event to give the boy an answer, the woman was hesitant to answer. Then again, poor Bobby needed to know at least what it changed regarding Cristina.

"I'm not exactly sure how Lincoln took it, but Cristina... Well, she was not left happy," the redheaded woman answered as she sat on her daughter's bed. "Now, she's been acting like her manipulative, childish self for a while, but after the kiss, she just seemed... Angrier than usual. As if she wanted to take revenge on Lincoln, but didn't really want to dish it out on him."

"I... Don't think I understand what you're saying," Bobby responded, and to be fair, this was Bobby she was talking to.

"Cristina was angry, there's no doubt about that, but after she clawed at Lincoln and I took her away, she... Just didn't feel like she would hurt him again if they were to meet once more," the woman explained. "She did blame him for everything, but that's about it. Definitely different from the Cristina I knew a long time ago."

"A long time... In what way?" Bobby asked.

"Before all of this mess ever happened... Although, perhaps, it would be better if I stopped wasting your time and continued my research," the redheaded woman replied. "I still get the feeling Cristina's hiding _something_ in here."

"Yeah, she does seem like the kind of girl who would hide a lot of things," said the teenager with a chuckle. "Well, good luck with your investigation, Mrs. Johnson, and don't worry, once Cristina's out of Ronnie's room, I'll make sure to take her back to you immediately. And yes, I'll make sure she and Lincoln don't see each other again too-"

"Lincoln's there too?!" the woman exclaimed. "Bobby, even with what I said earlier, make sure they don't meet again! He already made her angry once, who knows what could happen this time!"

"Okay, alright, I got it, geez."

And with that, Bobby hung the call and Mrs. Johnson rubbed her forehead. Things did get a bit hectic for a moment there, after all. And once she managed to calm down significantly, the woman left the room, went downstairs, and then looked at a picture of herself and Cristina, both sporting cheerful smiles.

"It's times like this I wish I had paid more attention to you," the woman grabbed the picture and took a closer look at it. "Maybe then, you wouldn't have changed so much, and more importantly, for the worst..."

She started to remember...

 _X Months Ago..._

Mrs. Johnson sat on her desk, checking some of the contest videos when Cristina entered the classroom and walked to her. "Mom, can I ask you something?" Cristina inquired, blushing a little and folding her arms behind her back. "There's something I've been thinking about ever since I met some weird kids after the contest thing-"

"Cristina, I've already told you before to stay away from the weird kids. They could wind up hurting you, or worse, and you must stay away from weirdos or other bad influences as much as possible," Mrs. Johnson replied in a stern tone, which changed to a motherly tone when she added, "But anyway, what's your question?"

After a couple moments of hesitation, Cristina revealed the question the duo would greatly regret:

"What is shipping?"

 _Back at the Present..._

"Why did I answer that?!" the woman snapped, slamming her fist into the ground. "Why didn't I kept her in the dark just a little while longer?!"

And then, just before she slammed the photo on the ground, the woman regained her composure and stopped herself. She put the picture back in its place, and sat down to catch her breath. "This is getting really exhausting," the woman remarked, rubbing her forehead. "If only I had a way to try and get a step ahead of Cristina..."

Suddenly, Agnes remembered a particular variable in one of Cristina's plans: Leni Loud. So she dialed the teenager as fast as she could...

 _Meanwhile, at the McBrides..._

Leni walked back and forth around the basement, catching some of her breath after acting like she was Lynn for a while. She didn't have to continue acting for the moment, since her sisters were elsewhere, either enjoying the house or helping Clyde build the obstacle course. Probably the former.

And then her phone rang, which forced her to answer the call. "Hello?" the teenager greeted with a notably grumpy tone.

"Is this Leni Loud?" Mrs. Johnson asked from the other line. "This is Mrs. Johnson, Cristina's mother, and I need to talk with you."

"So, Cristina's mother, huh? How did a halfway decent woman, at least from the look of it, gave birth to such an annoying, obnoxious little brat like Cristina?" Leni pondered out loud. "Anyhow, what is so important that you need to speak to me? Can't you wait until my other sisters are finished with their business, or even better, call them instead?"

"No, because you are explicitly in Cristina's plan!" Mrs. Johnson snapped.

The teenager's eyes grew wide for a moment, before she narrowed them in contemplation. So the little redheaded brat had some use for Leni after all.

"I'm listening," Leni answered.

"Okay, so, give me a moment to get the exact details," Mrs. Johnson said, with the sounds of the woman entering a room and grabbing a piece of paper coming up as she said that. "Alright, I got the plans here. So, in what seems to be called, get ready for this, "Operation: Cinnamon Roll," your job is to use this "master bracelet" thing you have to further "break" your family. That's all it says, unfortunately."

And also unfortunately, Leni had an idea about what this meant.

"So Cristina wants me to use this red bracelet thing to mind control my sisters into further destroying their mentally, and maybe even physically, to help her advance in whatever plans she has," Leni explained to the phone in a matter-of-fact tone. "How well am I doing?"

"...I honestly can't answer that," Mrs. Johnson replied. "Just listen up, whatever you do, don't do what she wants you to do. And if I need to do something to convince you, then tell me what is it. As long as it's something reasonable, I'll do it."

Suddenly, Leni got an idea. A devious idea.

"I want to become Cristina's babysitter," she stated. "That way, just like you, I can keep a better eye on her plans and make sure to derail them whenever possible."

"I'm not sure if you'll ever get to do that, but if I need to do that to convince you, then so be it," Mrs. Johnson replied, with Leni smiling in approval. "When can you babysit her?"

"I'll let you know later, but for now, stay assured that I won't break my family using the bracelet," the teenager answered. "Goodbye, Mrs. Johnson."

And with that said and done, the teenager hung the phone and chuckled as she took a look at her bracelet.

"Excellent, not only do I get to have complete control over my family, but I now have a way of knowing how to derail Cristina's plans, not to mention know what the heck she's doing," Leni said, placing a hand on her hip. "This is all coming up better than expected! Now I just need to stay like "Leynni" until a couple more hours and I'll have made quite some progress!"

Without warning, the basement door opened and Lynn and Lisa came in, with the former grabbing the latter's hand. "I told you she was, like, going to be here," Lisa told Lynn with a proud tone.

"I will admit that there was a small chance that your presumption that Leni was in the basement could be correct, and you were right. Good job," Lynn replied, patting Lisa in the head. "Anyway, Leni, how are you doing?"

"Look out!" Leni shouted with a Lynn-like tone.

And then she threw a football at the duo, which they narrowly dodged. "Where did you even-Nevermind, there are more important business at hand," Lynn remarked, adjusting Lisa's glasses since she didn't have any of her own. "Clyde is almost finished with the obstacle course, and we need you to help him make your part of the course. So come help him."

Leni nodded excitedly and ran after Lynn and Lisa as they left the basement. And once she was back at the living room, she saw how her sisters-barring Lisa and Lynn-were doing: Lana continued to gloom on the floor while Lola tried to tell her a decent joke, Luna bathe in the mud while Luan played an air banjo, and Lori pulled a bunch of poses on the mirror while Lucy continued to whine to someone on her phone.

"Hehehe, what a bunch of Lenis," the teenager thought, her face remaining frozen in an excited grin.

 _Back with Mrs. Johnson..._

The woman maintained a firm look as she searched all over the room in hopes of finding anything that could give her further clues regarding Cristina's endgame. Unfortunately, she didn't have any luck finding anything worthwhile...

That is, until she came across a picture of a girl in a purple jumper and Lincoln together, with a big heart behind them. It was also very crudely drawn.

"Huh, Cristina is still miles away from becoming a decent artist," Mrs. Johnson remarked with a tired chuckle. "Although I also have to wonder why she drew this. I mean, I recognize Lincoln, but who is the girl next to him?"

And then she turned to a picture of the whole family together: Herself, Cristina, and her husband.

"She is a lot like her father," she remarked with a mix of both sadness and happiness. "Just like him, she doesn't know when to stop."

 _Then, at the McBrides..._

Lynn watched her sisters building the remaining parts of the obstacle course when her phone rang. So of course, she had to answer it. "Salutations?" she greeted.

"Hello, this is Ronnie Anne," said the other voice, sounding a bit... Off. "Remember me?"

"But of course, we talked before," Lynn replied, gaining a smile. "And I deeply apologize that we weren't able to play some baseball as we promised. But, perhaps another time, we could do that?"

"Yeah, whatever, that's not important now," "Ronnie" replied. "I have a question for you: When it comes down to it, would you be disgusted if someone, say, raped your brother? Would you be boiling with sheer, unbridled fury, if you found out someone took your brother's virginity? His innocence?"

"Absolutely!" the athlete-turned-genius vehemently proclaimed. "Virgnity is one of the most sacred things anybody could ever have! To take away from them, to forcefully take it away for whatever reason... Of course I would be absolutely fuming in rage if somebody took my brother's virginity!"

"Huh, what an interesting answer..." by this point, the voice no longer sounded like Ronnie... "Fine, I have one final question: If what you say is true..."

Finally, the voice finished, with Cristina's voice:

"Then why did you rape your own brother?"

And with that, the phone hung up as Lynn-shocked and disgusted by the question-dropped the phone to the floor and froze in place. _"What the hell was that all about?!"_ she thought in genuine disbelief.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Well, I could convince Lincoln to come here for a sleepover," this suggestion immediately caught the attention of the sisters. "He'll sleep here and you can relax back home, and maybe even get an idea on how to fix yourselves. What do you think?"

And as the girls discussed what to do next, Clyde couldn't help but meekly think with worry:

 _"If this doesn't end up convincing them... Oh boy, I'm in trouble..."_


	28. The Loud Obstacle Course

_Sometime later, back at the McBrides..._

Clyde walked back and forth in front of the Loud sisters, who firmly watched him as he spoke, "Okay, ladies, it took a while but we managed to create an obstacle course to try and turn you back to normal!"

And then Clyde pointed at the amalgamation that was the Loud course.

"Lori! For your challenge, you have to call the cellphones, no matter how much your bracelet shocks you!"

"I will sacrifice my magnificence if it means returning to normal, I guess," Lori replied.

"Leni! For your challenge, you must identify what's good and bad fashion, no matter how much your bracelet shocks you!"

"Piece of cake," Leni said, focusing on spinning a basketball.

"Luna! For your challenge, you must rock the socks off these mick swagger objects!"

The teenager drooled, seemingly in awe.

"Luan! For your challenge, you must prank every single cardboard cutout!"

The pranksters shrugged.

"Lynn! For your challenge, you must kick the balls into the goalposts, and no, mine don't count!"

Lynn just said, "Obviously."

"Lucy! You must write poetry!"

"I'm telling you Haiku, I can't believe you're dating this guy!" Lucy complained to her phone.

"Lana and Lola! You must play in the mud and look beautiful respectively!"

"My gut tells me it must be done, but my brain tells me we will all die in the end, so there's no point," Lana stated.

"I have a _gut_ feeling about this," Lola said with a chuckle. "Get it?"

"Lisa! You must solve an incredibly hard equation!"

Lisa shrugged. "Like, okay."

"Everybody got it?" Clyde asked, earning nods from the girls. "Then get to it!"

And so, all the sisters ran forward to their courses and... well:

Lisa attempted to complete the ecuation, but she had her attention constantly taken by the fashion in Leni's course. And even then, every single time she tried to even go near the equation, the bracelet shocked her and sent her flying back quite a while back.

Lana just laid on the ground around the puddles, apparently acting like an opposum. Meanwhile, her twin Lola spoke to the mirrors... and told them jokes. Thank goodness they couldn't hear her.

Lucy sat on the ground and wrote something on a paper, so nothing seemed out of place. But instead of writing a poem, she was apparently writing about Clyde... while still speaking to Haiku on her phone, "And now, Haiku, I'm going to literally write all the reasons why you and Clyde shouldn't date!"

Lynn strategically tried to play with the ball in a way that the bracelet wouldn't shock her in return, but she was shocked no matter what happened. Eventually, she just gave up and started to calculate a better way to try and undo the bracelet's influence.

Luan shredded an air guitar as an audience of puppets watched motionlessly. Meanwhile, Luna was shocked everytime she tried to touch the guitars, and then she grabbed a poster of Mick Swagger and rolled in the ground with it, crying in the process.

Finally, Leni constantly bounced a ball against the fashion mannequins, while Lori took a bunch of selfies with the phone, and did absolutely nothing else with it.

 _"Good lord, I had a feeling the bracelet's influence was going to be strong, but not this strong,"_ Clyde thought in disbelief. "Okay girls, get back here."

The Louds immediately returned to Clyde's side. "Alright, it has become clear to me that this obstacle course... isn't going to be of much help right now," Clyde told the girls, and they couldn't help but agree with him. "Do any of you have any ideas of how we can fix you up?"

"Oh, I have an idea!" Lisa exclaimed, waving her hand. "We should, like, just go with the flow and wait for the bracelets to short-circuit on their own!"

A couple seconds of silence later, Clyde remarked, "I don't know how that bracelet does it, but it definitely knows how to make you sound like Leni."

"Actually, Lisa might be having one of those rare smart Leni moments," Lynn argued, catching everybody's attention. "We tried to force the bracelets to short-circuit, and it didn't do us any good. However, if we were to try and let these things short circuit on their own, perhaps that would wind up being far more beneficial in the long run."

After hearing that little explanation, Clyde immediately ran inside, with the sisters exchanging looks of confusion. He bolted all the way to his room, and then looked at himself in a mirror while touching his left ear, revealing he had an earpiece in it.

"Bobby, did you get all that?" Clyde asked to his earpiece.

"Loud and clear, Junior, but the little red girl probably had that in mind when she commisioned the bracelets," Bobby answered from the other line. "As for what you should do now... beats me, but the girls musn't return to their house just yet. Do something, anything, to convince them to stay there with you."

With that done, the girls barged into Clyde's bedroom and startled him. "Girls, please don't scare me like that!" Clyde told the girls, right before saying the next in a far gentler tone. "I mean Lori, you can come in anytime, but all 10 of you... it's troublesome."

"Whatever, we just wanted to know if you needed us for something else," Luna said. "If you have nothing, then we'll just be on our way-"

"Wait!" and then, Clyde said something he would regret very soon: "Would you like to have a sleepover at the basement?"

A couple seconds of silence later, Lynn narrowed her eyes and said, "Clyde, you're acting a bit suspicious, have you been affected by Cristina's tricks too?"

"N-No, not at all!" Clyde replied. "I just believe that you should spend some time away from Lincoln, 'cause I get the feeling it would be better that way."

Lynn shook her head, "I believe that too, but how are we supposed to spend some time away from him? There's nothing left for us to do here."

"Well, I could convince Lincoln to come here for a sleepover," this suggestion immediately caught the attention of the sisters. "He'll sleep here and you can relax back home, and maybe even get an idea on how to fix yourselves. What do you think?"

And as the girls discussed what to do next, Clyde couldn't help but meekly think with worry:

 _"If this doesn't end up convincing them... Oh boy, I'm in trouble..."_

And then Lori, of all people, suggested, "How about we sleep with Clyde? If we go back home, one of us is bound to use the game to play the Lincoln route, and that wouldn't help anybody, would it?"

 _"Nevermind, I'm in trouble anyway,"_ Clyde thought, before saying, "S-Sure, you can do that too. It might get a bit crowded in here, though, so how about you sleep in the basement?"

"Fine, basement it is," Lori remarked. "See ya tomorrow, Clyde!"

The girls left, leaving Clyde to think, _"I never thought this would happen, but Lori-and other girls-are sleeping with me, and I'm not okay with that... Cristina, you better make sure this is worth it in the end."_

 _Back at the Santiago Household..._

Ronnie and Lincoln sat together and watched TV. They were currently watching a show about a boy and his many sisters being bounded by the will of an evil mastermind by the usage of bracelets. No doubt Lincoln found this very relatable at the moment.

"Dang it, as long as Evil Lord Christabel holds the master bracelet, my sisters and I are nothing but his pawns!" the main character exclaimed, pointing at the crimson bracelet held by Evil Lord Christabel. "He'll force us to become lovers against our will!"

"You got that right, Albinodrigo! I will show you and your sisters the truth!" Evil Lord Christabel exclaimed, raising his fists victoriously. "You will feel the true extent of depravity! You will see what "the matchmakers" do to us for fun! And when I destroy them, I will be seen as the world's savior!"

"Geez, the only thing worse than this show's acting is the fact that I can relate to it," Lincoln remarked, earning a chuckle from Ronnie.

And then, Lincoln got an idea. "That's it! Maybe the bracelets work the same way they do in that tv show and are controlled by a master bracelet," he argued, no doubt surprising-and most importantly, confusing-Ronnie Anne. "That means that the only thing my sisters and I have to do, is find whoever has the master bracelet, make them take it off and then destroy it, and we'll be free!"

"That... makes sense, I guess," Ronnie remarked.

"I have to tell Clyde about this!" Lincoln exclaimed.

But just before she could stop him, Ronnie decided to let Lincoln go tell his best friend as she knew what she was going to do next. She went back to her room, opened the closet and gave Cristina an angry look, all while the redhead looked bored at best, apathetic at worst.

"Did you seriously have to base your plan out of a television show!?" Ronnie snapped.

But Cristina didn't respond.

"Oh, so we're back to the silent cutie nonsense, huh?"

Cristina nodded, blushing and covering her cheeks with a sly smile. Noticing this, Ronnie blushed, shook her head and returned to reality.

"Well then, answer me this: Who has the master bracelet?"

Cristina smiled as she walked out of the closet... and outright refused to answer Ronnie's question. And the tomboy eventually gave up on that question when the two went downstairs, with Cristina heading towards a tray of cinnamon rolls.

"Fine then, let me ask you something you will answer," and then Ronnie asked, sounding honestly worried, "Cristina, are you planning to do something regarding my relationship with Lincoln?"

The redhead, however, just smiled and continued walking as Ronnie asked more loudly, "Cristina, answer me! Are you planning to do something about that?!"

Cristina stopped right on her tracks, turned around... and gave Ronnie a sly grin and smug look, sending a shiver up Ronnie's spine so chill, she actually stepped back and trembled, though she still tried to stand her ground. Even then, Ronnie couldn't help but feel that Cristina would always be a step ahead of her, no matter what happened.

Narrowing her eyes with slight condescendence, Cristina continued on her way and left the room, letting the hispanic girl get some breathing space. Needless to say, Ronnie soon went to a nearby window and formed a fist with her hand.

"Cristina... If you do something to Lincoln and me, you will pay dearly for it!" she shouted, right before punching the wall.

And it was not a weak strike either, Ronnie actually managed to partially crack the wall. Not that she herself wasn't hurt in return, for she hit the ground and grabbed her fist, shedding a couple tears.

Nearby the room, Cristina heard everything with an apathetic look, and once Ronnie calmed down, she... slid a medical kit into the room before leaving for real. She then went downstairs and, remembering the tray of cinnamon rolls, she took one, gave it a condescending smirk...

And then promptly snapped it in two.

"I hope this is an accurate comparison," Cristina remarked, before grabbing and eating part of the cinnamon bun with her teeth.

 _Back at the Loud House..._

Lincoln went inside, and immediately felt that something was off. Then, he did the thing he came there for: Call Clyde to tell him the news. But not before receiving Ronnie's message:

 _"Hey La-...Lincoln. It's Ronnie Anne. Hey, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I hung out with any of your sisters? Lana, Lola, Lynn, anybody is fine. I just need to take a bit of a break from what's happening right now-don't ask me about it-and I would like to talk with another girl. Not that I have any issue talking with you, but since you already got a lot to deal with, I don't wanna be another pest. So, respond when you can."_

And then, the boy pondered what to reply. He just got back on Ronnie's good side, so ignoring the message wouldn't do him any good, but if he was to reject the idea, he had to be gentle. So, he said the next:

"Listen, Ronnie, while in any other I wouldn't mind if you hung out with my sisters, right now It's not the best idea. They're suffering a lot, and have had their personalities currently changed into that of others. Seriously, after Cristina's dealt with, we might even need to go to therapy! So the short answer is that no, for the moment, I think it would be better if you didn't hang out with my sisters. It's the best for us both."

So he sent the message, and went on to call his best friend.

"Hello, Clyde?" Linc greeted. "Listen, I think I found out how to get rid of the bracelets!"

"Before you say anything, I convinced your sisters to have a sleepover at my house, so that's why your house is quieter than usual, just in case you were wondering about it," Clyde hastily answered, which Lincoln understood just fine. "Anyway, what did you want to tell me?"

"Oh, right, uh, I was with Ronnie Anne, and I saw a show that gave me an idea: Maybe the bracelets are connected to a "master bracelet" of sorts, so if we got rid of this bracelet the other bracelets would lose power and everybody would be freed from their control," Lincoln explained, with a slight hint of sadness in his tone. "Also, can you please tell my sisters about this? It's very important."

A couple seconds of silence later, Clyde answered, in a matter-of-fact tone, "Sure, I'll tell them everything. Goodbye Lincoln."

"Goodbye."

The boy hung the phone and remained on the couch for a while longer. During that time, he took a look to his left, and a look to his right, but no matter where he looked, the Loud House's characteristic loud environment was replaced by an omnious silence. And it wasn't even any sort of silence by Loud House standards, like the girls being quieter than usual, no, this was true silence: complete absence of sound Lincoln was familiar or even comfortable with.

Not helping were Lincoln's thoughts in that exact moment:

"I miss them already..."

 _Then, at the McBrides' Basement..._

Clyde-now in his pajamas-watched as the Loud Sisters got ready to sleep, laying on their custom-made beds. They had just been told about the master bracelet deal too, so there's that.

"Thanks for letting us stay in here for the night, Clyde," Luna said as she tucked herself.

"And thanks for the information regarding the bracelets too," Leni added. "You're such a sweetie."

"Yeah, you're like a cinnamon roll too, Leni," Clyde replied, giving the teenager a thumbs up and a wink. "Just remember everyone, try to have a goodnight sleep. I will be up a little bit later than usual to deal with some stuff, so if you need help with something, you know where to find me."

"Where?" Lisa asked.

Clyde gave the girl an incredulous look before answering "my room" and leaving straight for his bedroom. Once there, Clyde took out a laptop and turned it on as he got a call, with the caller being none other than Ronnie Anne.

"Hi Ronnie," Clyde greeted. "I'm about to get to work on when the bracelets will change, I'll let you know when I decipher the exact time it will take them to switch again."

"Got it, keep up the good work, buddy," Ronnie replied, hanging the phone before calling somebody else, "Carol, status report on Lori."

"Okay, so Junior is still acting like her fabulous princess sister, so nothing out of the ordinary there," Carol answered, before adding in discomfort, "Although, it seems that Bobby was replaced by some black kid. Not that I have anything against black people, but telling me about the change would have been nice."

"Well, Cristina has gone quiet again," Ronnie replied. "And it doesn't seem she'll talk anytime soon. But worst of all, I asked her if she was planning to jeopardize my relationship with Lincoln... and she didn't answer me."

 _Speaking of Cristina..._

The girl surfed through the internet on her laptop in the middle of a dark room, with the light from the monitor illuminating her face, revealing small eye bags under her... well, eyes. She was apparently writing something to Agape, which basically amounted to:

"Dear Agape, please bring me information on "Project Ghoul Syrum" as soon as possible. There's something I must discuss with you. And stop being such an ass all the time! Do you wanna become part of the garden?!"

And then, once she sent the message, she slowly closed her laptop as she turned to her clock. The clock was marked 9:35 pm.

"Heh, I might actually get to sleep earlier than yesterday, but first," the redhead thought before taking out a list. "I need to make sure I have everything checked out."

The list contained some simple objects: Meatballs, spaghetti, location, romantic mood. They were all checked, meaning the girl had already acquired the items.

Satisfied, the redhead then turned a particular picture on the wall. The picture... was a copy of Lincoln and Ronnie hanging out, surrounded by a large pink heart... and pictures of other potential girls, including the Loud Sisters, marked with red crosses. Including Cristina herself.

 _"They must get together, no matter what."_

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

Leni, leaning against a wall, watched her sleeping sisters while occasionally looking at her glowing bracelet. And then, once the bracelet stopped glowing, she went forward to Lisa, grabbed her and walked to the door as Lori woke up. "Leni, what are-"

But Leni quickly said, "Would you kindly go back to sleep?"

The teenager fell asleep in an instant, and Leni left the room afterwards.


	29. A Dark Reminder

_Midnight..._

Leni, leaning against a wall, watched her sleeping sisters while occasionally looking at her glowing bracelet. And then, once the bracelet stopped glowing, she went forward to Lisa, grabbed her and walked to the door as Lori woke up. "Leni, what are-"

But Leni quickly said, "Would you kindly go back to sleep?"

The teenager fell asleep in an instant, and Leni left the room afterwards.

 _A bit later, in a pitch black room..._

A single light turned on to reveal a sleeping Lisa sitting on a chair. Not that she remained asleep for long, since she soon woke up and saw Leni nearby, with a stern frown and her arms folded.

"Good midnight, Lisa," the teenager said, narrowing her eyes. "We have something to talk about."

"Leni, can't it wait until the morning?" Lisa whined, and this immediately got on Leni's nerves. "I mean, I understand if you can't wait for too long, but how about you wait until the early morning or-"

And then Leni smacked the wall with her fist, shutting up the scientist. "I have waited long enough, and you have ignored me for far too long as well," she sternly stated. "We will discuss your apathy towards a particular topic right here, right now!"

Leni snapped her fingers and the lights turned on, revealing they were in the Loud House basement, with a bunch of blueprints hung on the walls. "These are all blueprints. For machines," Leni said as she took some of the blueprints and showed them to the genius. "An intelligence enhancer, an attitude corrector, a humor analyzer. Do any of these give you any ideas?"

Lisa scratched her chin in contemplation... then promptly stated, "No, what am I supposed to get from this?"

Notably angry, Leni threw the blueprints away, grabbed Lisa by the collar of her shirt's neck and pulled her towards her, until they met face-to-face. In that instant, Lisa could see in Leni's look that a great repressed anger had been unleashed, but she couldn't understand why.

"You're supposed to get what you should have done since the very start you became a genius!" Leni snapped. "You're supposed to get that these are the stuff you could have worked on earlier, but which you decided to ignore to follow far more pretentious goals! You're supposed to see how you could have made our situation better, how you could've helped the family, and how you, didn't, do a damn thing to help us!"

And then Leni threw Lisa over to a table, breaking it in two. Surprisingly, outside of a pain at the back of her head, Lisa looked relatively fine. "L-Leni, what are you talking about?!" the small scientist inquired as she got up and Leni approached her. "I mean, I get that you're trying to say something, but I don't know what that is!"

Leni stopped in front of Lisa and chuckled. "Ha, the genius of the Loud household still has no idea what I'm talking about? And here I thought I was the dumb one," and then she leaned closer, "Speaking of which, how did it feel, Lisa? To act like me? To be seen as me? To _be_ me?"

The little genius flinched, almost as if she had an idea of what Leni was asking. Nevertheless, the scientist refused to respond, and instead she gave Leni a defiant glare.

This didn't stop Leni from adding, "You know full well what happened: these bracelets change our behaviors but they don't erase our memories of them. You remember acting like me. You remember how Clyde said you even sounded like me. How did that make you feel?"

And Lisa continued to refuse to respond. So Leni continued, with a tone of restrained anger, as she went to a nearby shovel and picked it up.

"Well, that's how I feel every day. That's how I have to feel every day. Because I'm the dumb one of the crowd, and I can't change that, no matter how hard I try."

And then, she turned to Lisa with a furious glare.

"But you could change that, right?"

Lisa backed away, and immediately hit a wall as Leni approached her with the shovel. "You always had the ability to change a person for the better. You always had the potential to change an intolerable jerk into a charming individual. You could have even turned the Louds from the obnoxious pariahs of Royal Woods to decent, or even respectable people."

And then, she stopped and firmly stared at the scared genius.

"But that isn't what you did, is it?" and she lifted the shovel, her glare growing more and more enraged. "No, you did something different. You did something worst. You did the worst possible thing a person with your abilities could ever do..."

And as she swung the shovel down, she yelled:

"You did _nothing!_ "

Luckily, Lisa dodged the shovel and managed to grab an equally large shovel as a weapon, though it was very clear she had a hard time holding it.

"Why didn't you ever wonder what you could do to help us?!"

She struck again.

"Why did you never attempt to make us more tolerable?!"

And again.

"Why did you allow this to happen in the first place?!"

And then, she struck so hard, Lisa's shovel was sent flying away until it landed on top of a pile of weaponry. "Even when it was clear you thought things would be better if we acted different... you stood at the sidelines and did nothing about it! Even when you expressed desire to change us for the better, you never did anything about it! And for that, I can only ask... why?"

"I know what you mean, but I can't just use my family like they were nothing but guinea pigs to me!" Lisa spat, tears streaming down her cheeks. "It wouldn't be morally clean or responsible!"

Leni just chuckled, "You. Slimy. Hypocrite."

And then she swung her shovel again and sent Lisa flying to a wall. She then slowly walked to her, dragging her shovel on the ground as she said:

"You're a scientist. Since when does your kind care about morality? Since when do you care about hurting the ones you love in order to achieve what you want?"

"I'm not a generic mad scientist, Leni! Yes, I used to experiment on you, but I don't do that anymore!" Lisa spat in defiance, making the teenager stop. "I won't, and I will never, fall to the deep moral depravity that scientists tend to show! And if I have to fall into such depths just to be considered a scientist... then screw science!"

Leni looked legitimately surprised for a moment, but she soon figured something out:

"You're saying all of this because the bracelet is making you say it, don't you?"

And then, just as Lisa got the idea, Leni kicked her in the face. "And here I was thinking I was talking with the real deal, when I was talking to the disgraceful imitation all along."

And then she kicked the girl again.

"I practiced what I was going to say, you know? What I would tell you so that you would know how it could have been, had things been different."

And then came another kick, this time aimed at Lisa's gut.

"But now, It's all been wasted on you."

And even after all that kicking, and despite bleeding from her mouth and nose, Lisa stood up and glared back defiantly.

"At the very least, since you seem to be stronger than the average 4-year-old, I can at least vent on you as much as I want!"

Leni kicked Lisa and sent her rolling to the pile of weapons where the scientist's shovel stood upon. Luckily, shortly after she hit the pile, Lisa recovered her consciousness fast enough to see she still had a chance to win.

And as the teen slowly approached, Lisa grabbed the shovel and struck the teenager once she was close enough, causing the duo to fight once more. This time, however, Lisa managed to put up a decent fight, as she managed to clash shovels with Leni before she swept it under her feet and then sent her flying with a smack until she crashed into a nearby wall.

As she slide back on the ground and she grabbed her legs, Lisa cautiously approached as she said, "I have done mistakes. I want to ammend for them. But, even if you're angry because of what I never did, even if you just wish to vent, nobody deserves... this!"

Leni smiled as she seemingly accepted Lisa's apology, and she got up and dusted herself... with one hand, while she continued to hold the shovel. This certainly caught Lisa's attention, and it made her back away a little.

"You're right, Lisa. Nobody deserves this..."

But then she lifted the shovel and got ready to strike again.

"Nobody but you!"

But just as she attacked, Lisa swung her own shovel and struck Leni in the cheek, hitting her hard enough to make her drop her shovel and crash into a wall, where she slid and slumped on the ground, too damaged to move.

With that done, Lisa ran to Leni's aid-holding the shovel just in case-and then saw Leni was... sobbing, crying even, as her smacked cheek showed a bright red shovelprint in it. Not only that, Leni genuinely sounded defeated this time, no tricks up her sleeves this time it seems.

"All I wanted was to convince you to help us, to use your brain for something that you should've tried to improve from the beginning: Our family," Leni sadly mused, shedding a pair of tears. "You have an amazing intellect, Lisa, but whenever you have the chance to use it for us, you just brush it aside and focus on other stuff."

The scientist was rendered speechless. "Don't you see how you could wind up helping everybody, Lisa? You could make Luan tell better jokes, you could have Lynn learn when to play and when to be serious, you could even make Lola a lot more tolerable, but you never thought about it, did you? We were never your priority, weren't we?"

Lisa looked away, feeling both regret and uneasiness now that she know what Leni wanted all along.

"But what you don't realize... is that we need you, Lisa," Leni added. "Only you can make us realize we could be so much more, only you can help us achieve a state that will benefit all of us. But if you don't help us... if you _won't_ help us... then nobody else will..."

Lisa shed a couple tears as she stated: "I will help! Once this entire ordeal is dealt with, I'll get working in making our family better as soon as I can!"

Leni was taken aback by the statement. After having been ignored for so long, someone finally listened to her. Nevertheless, Leni couldn't take any chances, so she started to say a familiar sentence:

"Would you k-"

But she stopped. She couldn't end the sentence. She legitimately couldn't end the sentence. This was the first time someone actually heard Leni and didn't brush her aside mid-sentence or ignore her altogether. Doubly so because the one listening was Lisa, Leni's complete opposite in nearly everything other than gender.

And so, shedding some more tears, Leni lifted her arms and said, "Come here, sis."

Lisa, however, wasn't so quick to forgive the blonde, specially after the fight they just had. "I think I'll just sleep over here," she answered as she settled down on the wall opposite of Leni.

The teenager, though saddened, did recognize it was her fault her little sister didn't want to sleep with her. So she closed her eyes, nodded in agreement and soon fell asleep while Lisa watched her, and the little genius slept as well once she verified Leni really was asleep.

 _Next day, at the school..._

A tired Lincoln walked across the hallways until he spotted Clyde among other of his "friends" talking about something. He went closer to them and got Clyde's attention, "Clyde, there's something I have to ask you."

"What is it?" Clyde asked, sounding partially worried.

"This morning, when all my sisters returned from the sleepover, Leni and Lisa were missing," Linc explained. "Then, I found them at the basement, bruised and bleeding. Do you know what happened?"

"Well, I don't know what to tell you, because I didn't hear them leave or anything," Clyde shrugged.

And as the boys continued to talk, Cristina watched from afar, her eyes looking just as tired as they were at night. In fact, she almost fell asleep before she slapped herself back to reality. And then she was approached by Ronnie, who put a hand in her shoulder and cheerfully greeted, "Hi Cristina, what's up?"

A long moment of silence passed before Cristina answered, sounding both tired and worried at the same time:

"Ronnie, I'm afraid there's something I want you to do for me."

 _"Great, she's talking again,"_ Ronnie thought. And then she realized what that meant, _"Oh no, she's talking again!"_

And then, the duo turned around and saw Lincoln with Liam, Rusty Spokes, and some of his classmates. Clyde was among them, and he definitely looked a lot more worried than usual, almost as if he was hoping nothing bad would happen.

"Do you see Lincoln over there, with his friends?" Cristina asked, her frown turning into a forced smile as she added, "Those aren't friends. The only friend he has is Clyde, and he won't be able to do anything about what's coming next."

Ronnie glanced between Lincoln, Clyde and the classmates, but no matter how many times she did, she couldn't see what Cristina was talking about. "Wait, what do you-"

And then, the redhead snapped, "Would you kindly beat Lincoln within an inch of his life, right in front of his "friends"?"

Ronnie's eyes turned bright green as she answered, "Yes, Cristina" in a deadpan tone. Notably, she started to cry as she walked forward to Lincoln, all while Cristina maintained her pained smile as she watched the scene unfold.

First, Ronnie got close to Lincoln. Unsurprisingly, the guy was pretty surprised to see her. "Ronnie Anne? What do you need?" he asked.

And then, almost as if on cue, Ronnie formed a fist and punched Lincoln hard enough to break his nose. And while initially shocked, everybody but Clyde soon started to laugh as Lincoln grabbed his broken nose.

"Geez, Lincoln, you suck at dodging!" the kid with a teenager's voice said.

 _"No, not this again! Cristina, why do you have to force me to sit through all of this again?!"_ Ronnie thought in horror.

"Ronnie, what the heck?!" Lincoln howled in pain. "Did I do something to you or something?"

"Dude, of course you must have done something to her!" one of Lincoln's "friends" said. "She wouldn't have attacked you otherwise."

 _"And once again, they think he's at fault for me hitting him."_

And then Ronnie kicked Lincoln right in the family jewels. While this made everybody-even Ronnie and Cristina-cringe and wince, the mocking soon continued regardless. "Can we consider Lincoln a girl now?" one of the kids asked.

"Forget considering him a girl, he's never getting a family as big as his own now!" another kid giggled.

"Dude, don't you act like that's a bad thing," the guy with a teenager voice scoffed.

 _"Damn it, you guys, why do you have to be such assholes?! Why didn't Cristina told me to beat you all up instead!?"_ Ronnie thought, showing off her fangs.

"Ronnie, I-I don't know w-what I did, but I'm s-sure we can discuss it non-violently!" Lincoln argued, sounding slightly terrified of whatever was coming next. "I'm not going to fight you, so please, stop doing this!"

"Shut up and take it like the man you are, or used to be, Lincoln!" one of the boys ordered, with the other boys-minus Clyde-nodding in agreement.

And then, Ronnie Anne grabbed Lincoln by the collar of his neck and pinned him against a wall. "R-Ronnie, please, I'm begging you, stop this!" Lincoln pleaded, tears streaming down his cheeks.

 _"I want to, Lincoln, I want to stop, but I can't!"_ Ronnie thought as she shed tears and muttered enough strength to turn to Cristina, who just continued to look in apparent apathy. _"Cristina please, make me stop before I go too far!"_

 _"Just a bit more,"_ Cristina thought as Ronnie turned back to Lincoln. _"The boys must show their true cruelty before this can stop."_

The tomboy formed a fist and got ready to punch Lincoln again. But just as she threw her fist at him, she stopped right in front of his face and tried to pull it back, with the punch constantly looking like it could wind up hitting Lincoln.

 _"I need to resist! I need to resist! I need to resist!"_

But in the end, Ronnie simply paused before she tightened her hold of Lincoln, followed by her punching him as hard she could while Cristina thought, in regret and in disappointment,

 _"I'm sorry, Ronnie, but resisting won't do you any good."_

Ronnie repeatedly punched Lincoln, giving him a black eye, some broken teeth, and eventually some blood came out of his nose as the girl's uninterrupted barrage of punches was accompanied by the cruel laughter and mockery of Lincoln's "supposed" friends, except for Clyde, who covered his ears and closed his eyes.

 _"What a wuss!"_

 _"Pathetic!"_

 _"And to think I thought Lincoln wore the pants in his relationship!"_

 _"I guess the rumors were true, Lincoln was actually Ronnie's punching bag all along!"_

 _"That's kinda fitting for him, actually!"_

Finally, just to signal the beating was over, Ronnie headbutted Lincoln hard enough to drive him unconscious. Once she released him, the girl saw Lincoln slide down the floor and saw the aftermath of the beating: A bleeding broken nose, a black eye, broken teeth, messy hair, all that stuff could be seen in the ravaged boy that was Lincoln Loud.

And, forced or not, it was thanks to her that Lincoln looked like this.

The breaking point came soon afterwards when a boy grabbed Clyde's arms, presented him to her, and then said:

"Hey, how about you beat up this guy next?"

And in that instant, Cristina walked forward and snapped her fingers, breaking Ronnie out of her trance. "Okay Ronnie, that's enough," the redhead stated as she went to the unconscious boy and lifted him. "You may beat up the boys if you want, I have to take Lincoln to the nurse."

"Hey, baby, you saw Ronnie beat him up, right?" one of Lincoln's friends said. "How about you ditch that loser and come with some actual boys, like us?"

"Ronnie, you have my permission to turn these boys into pseudo-girls," Cristina stated, making her anger at the boys very clear as Clyde went to her. "And do it as painfully as possible."

And as the redhead gestured Clyde to come with her, Ronnie gave the boys an angry look as they laughed. Once she verified she wasn't kidding by cracking her knuckles... the laughter continued, this time sounding even more mocking...

"Oh come on, we're four-ish against one," said one of the boys. "What can a tiny little girl like you do to us?"

"Allow me to show you!" Ronnie growled with a grin.

And then, she leaped forward as the boys continued to laugh...

 _Sometime later..._

Clyde ran back to Ronnie Anne, breathing heavily as he ran. _"Dang it, I need to become more athletic!"_ Clyde thought as he forced himself to go on. _"I just hope I get there before Ronnie-"_

But once he arrived, what he feared became true: He was too late. Ronnie had blood in her cheeks and hands, and the boys were nowhere to be seen. But there was a trail of blood nearby, leading to a nearby hallway where regretful cries could be heard.

"R-Ronnie?!" Clyde asked in shock, catching the tomboy's attention. "W-W-What happened?!"

The tomboy didn't respond at first. Instead, she looked at her own bloodied hands before stating in a stern tone, "I made the mockers pay."

"D-D-Don't tell me-" Clyde stuttered, getting an idea of what happened.

"Yes, I beated the boys just as harshly as I beat Lincoln, so they would feel the pain the felt during the beating," Ronnie answered, thinking that's what Clyde thought.

"Oh thank gosh, I thought you killed them or something!" Clyde exclaimed, taking a deep breath.

And then Ronnie scratched her hair in contemplation. Looks like he accidentally gave her ideas.

"N-Not that you should do it!" Clyde quickly clarified.

And yet, Ronnie couldn't help but still think about it, if only as a last resort...

 _And then, at the infirmary..._

Lincoln slowly woke up and found himself at the nurse's office, laying on a bed with his sisters-all his sisters, mind you-by his side. Not only that, he was heavily bandaged: head, chest, stomach, limbs, a good deal of his body was covered in bandages.

"What happened?" Linc asked, looking around with worry.

"Apparently, Cristina took you all the way here after Ronnie beat you up and told the nurse to help treat your wounds," Lori answered, with a hint of utter disgust at Ronnie when she mentioned the tomboy's name. "She said you should be fine for a while, as long as you rest well."

"And until then, we'll be here, right by your side!" Lisa reassured.

"Um, you never told us about that," Lana remarked.

And as the sisters started to argue on what to do, Lincoln could only think:

 _"Why did Cristina help me?"_

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"I may have lost Lana, but I still haven't lost Lincoln," Lola said as she walked to her desk. "you hurt him. You beat him up. That alone should have earned you his hatred. His rage. I bet... he wants you to be dead right now."

And then, she opened the desk and took out a knife. And not a toy version of it, oh no, this one was the real deal, which made Ronnie back away. "And now..." the diva said, her reflection shining in the blade.

"W-Wait, what was that doing in your desk?!" Ronnie asked.

"And now!" Lola turned to the tomboy and slowly approached her, showing a demented smile. "Now, I can get revenge for him! I can avenge the beating you gave him with your death!"


	30. Athletic Admiration

_Sometime later, at the Loud House..._

The Loud Sisters and a recently healed Lincoln relaxed on the couch and watched some TV. Notably, Lincoln noticed that Lisa was giving Leni an uninterrupted glare, which she soon broke off when the teenager turned to look at her.

 _"Is something up with Leni and Lisa?"_ the boy thought, letting out an exhausted sigh. _"I really hope not, we have enough conflicts between sisters as is."_

"Hey, Lincoln," Leni blurted, catching her brother's attention. "Do you think Ronnie Anne was forced to beat you up?"

"For goodness sake, Leni!" Lisa shouted, getting up and causing a fuss. "Lincoln just came out of the infirmary! If you really want to discuss why Ronnie beat him up, at least wait a day or two! He still needs to recover from the beating! Don't just ask him about it right now!"

"And why are you reacting like this?" the teen crossed her arms. "I'm just asking 'cause I'm worried for his health, and I want to know why this happened in the first place."

"And the rest of us want to know too, but we aren't just asking him uncomfortable questions about it, are we?" Lisa spat in return.

"Okay, calm down you two, no need to get violent," Linc said, getting in between the duo. "I don't know why Ronnie beat me up, but I do have the feeling she was forced to do it. I mean, her eyes looked... different, she kinda looked like she wasn't in control of herself."

"What do you mean?" Lori asked.

"Well, from what I could see, her eyes were wide open and soulless," Linc explained, twiddling his fingers. "It's almost as if the Ronnie I knew and was shoved aside and replaced by a puppet."

"Perhaps the eyes are the end result of something Cristina did," Lynn suggested. "She's bothered us for a long time, perhaps she grew bored of us and found herself a new plaything?"

Lincoln looked at the ground, with his hair obscuring his eyes as he grew silent. Needless to say, the sisters found this very perturbing.

"L-Lincoln?" Lynn asked, reaching for her brother.

But the boy simply slapped the hand away, and ignored the athlete. "Is it something I said?" Lynn inquired, earning shrugs from her sisters.

"Well, you do have a bad habit of upsetting anybody you even come close to," Lola replied, brushing Lana's hair. "Isn't that right, dear Lana?"

Lana rolled her eyes and grabbed her twin's hand. "Look who's talking..."

The remaining sisters soon realized this couldn't lead to anything but trouble, and they all excused themselves and left, leaving Lincoln, Lynn and the twins behind. Lynn and Lincoln themselves took a passive role and sat and watched the twins argue with each other. And seeing how agressive Lynn was in general, it certainly caught Lincoln's attention.

"What are you talking about?" Lola asked, sounding genuinely dumbfounded. "I've been helping you deal with what Lynn did to you ever since what happened at the resort."

"Yeah, and at first I was okay with it, but you've been a pain in my butt ever since!" Lana spat in response. Then, with her arms crossed, the girl continued as she looked away from her twin. "You keep saying that you know what I need, that you know what you must do in order to help me deal with what happened, but all you've done is annoy me! And none of the things you've done have made anything better!"

Lola, however, gave her twin an angry look. "Name one thing that will prove your point."

"You sealed me inside a freaking bubble! You took Lynn to the backyard and did who knows what to her!" Lana snapped, making her twin flinch. "And worst of all, you've never even asked me about what I wanted! How I felt! All you've been do things to me with the excuse that it's the best for me!"

"Now listen up, Lana Loud, I was by your side when you had to talk with someone about this. I saved you from Lynn before she could do worse things to you. I helped during the early states of your recovery," Lola recapped, unaware this did nothing but anger Lana even more. "The least you could do, is appreciate what I've done for your sake!"

"I do appreciate what you did before, what I don't appreciate is what you've been doing recently!" Lana spat, with her tone growing more controlled and calm as she added, "I've taken some time to think about it, and I don't think I need your assistance anymore. From now on, I'll deal with this myself."

Unfortunately, Lola took the hint very clearly, and she shed a pair of tears as she gave her twin a furious glare. However, Lana continued to stand her ground and give her sister an sternful scowl, all while Lynn couldn't help but back away and try to ignore what was happening.

And then Lola hissed, "Fine! But don't come crawling back to when that..." the diva pointed at Lynn, who felt a chill go up her spine as she said, " _Thing_ , molests you again!"

However, Lana simply stated:

"I promise you that won't happen."

And so, rejected and embarrassed, Lola got off the couch and ran upstairs, crying as Lynn and Lana watched her go, with Lana looking angry while Lynn was... terrified. After all, seeing what Lola was capable of doing, who knows what she would do in retaliation for what happened.

But then, her attention was caught when Lana approached her and nervously extended her hand.

"Lynn, I think we need to talk..." and then she turned to Lincoln and added. "I want to talk with you too, Lincoln."

The duo shared worried looks.

 _Lola and Lana's bedroom..._

The pageant diva punched her pillow against the wall. She vented all her frustration against the poor pillow, which got closer and closer to breaking apart as the diva continued to mercilessly vent against it.

"Stupid Bracelets! Stupid resort! Stupid Lynn! But most of all, Stupid Lana!" Lola cried as the pillow started releasing feathers everywhere. "I was just trying to protect her from the real monster! I was trying to help her get through! And now she has the audacity to swept me aside?! To basically tell me to go away?!"

Then, the diva grabbed the pillow and started to stretch it, with it visibly ripping apart as she finished with a hiss:

"Fine then, if that's what she wants, that's what she'll get! She can become Lynn's pet slave if she wants! I don't care about her anymore!"

And then, the pillow exploded and feathers fell on the room as Lola took the time to catch her breath. But then...

"Geez, did you really need to murder the pillow?"

Upon hearing that, Lola's bracelet glowed again as she turned around to see where the voice had come from. Who she found was someone that made Lola enter a trance. But it wasn't a trance of bliss, or even a positive one. In this trance, Lola wanted nothing more than to murder them in cold blood. Rip them apart, mutilate them, paint the walls red with their blood.

It was Ronnie Anne.

Once she saw the girl, Lola's eyes turned bright green as her demeanor changed from angry in an embarrassed way, to angry in a murderous way. She threw away the pillow corpse and breathed heavily as the tomboy leaned against a wall, her face showing a determined scowl.

"What are you doing here?!" Lola barked. "How did you get here?!"

Ronnie rolled her eyes. "Well, you see-"

But then, Lola chuckled, causing the tomboy to shut up immediately.

"I may have lost Lana, but I still haven't lost Lincoln," Lola said as she walked to her desk. "you hurt him. You beat him up. That alone should have earned you his hatred. His rage. I bet... he wants you to be dead right now."

And then, she opened the desk and took out a knife. And not a toy version of it, oh no, this one was the real deal, which made Ronnie back away. "And now..." the diva said, her reflection shining in the blade.

"W-Wait, what was that doing in your desk?!" Ronnie asked.

"And now!" Lola turned to the tomboy and slowly approached her, showing a demented smile. "Now, I can get revenge for him! I can avenge the beating you gave him with your death!"

"So this is what the bracelets did, turn the girls into psychopaths when they see me. Cristina, you little..." Ronnie thought, before dodging a couple of incoming attacks from Lola. "Listen girl, it's nice that you want to make me pay for beating up your brother, but killing me isn't the right way to do it!"

"Ha! Looks who's talking!" Lola eventually grabbed Ronnie and pinned her against the wall. "You beat him up, and I will kill you for him! You're evil, and I'm good! You will die as a hated bully, and Lincoln will reward me handsomely!"

Then, as Lola bit her weapon's handle and giggled lustfully, Ronnie Anne took the chance to hit the back of Lola's head hard enough to knock her out. Once she dropped the weapon, Ronnie grabbed the unconscious girl and sneaked her way out of the house.

 _"Cristina, of all the things you could have turned the Louds into, why yanderes?"_ she thought in exasperation. _"You will have to give me a really good explanation once I take this diva to you, or else..."_

 _Back downstairs, at the kitchen..._

Lana, Lynn and Lincoln sat on the kid table and ate sandwiches. More specifically, Lynn ate her sandwich more slowly and somberly than usual, Lana ate it like it was nothing, and Lincoln didn't eat at all, he simply glanced between the two girls as they ate.

"So, Lana, why did you bring me along?" Lincoln suddenly asked, catching the mud lover's attention. "I mean, if you need help with something, I understand, but I would like to know why."

The mud lover didn't respond, she was still eating after all. Once she finished her sandwich, she took a deep breath before bluntly answered, "What do you think we should do?"

"What do you mean?" Linc replied.

"Lincoln, you may haven't noticed, but whenever we have a problem, you're there to help us deal with it," Lana explained as Lynn finished eating and nodded in agreement. "And now, I'm asking you what should Lynn and I do in order to resolve this issue between us once and for all. So, what do you suggest?"

Glancing at the duo, Lincoln scratched the back of his head as he gave his suggestion: "Maybe you could go outside, and talk about it?"

The tomboys exchanged looks of contemplation, and Lana blushed as she twiddled her fingers. "It's been a while since we went out together," Lana said, looking away from Lynn. "Playing ball, playing in the mud, just generally having a good time together... It's been so long since we did that, didn't we?"

"Yeah, it feels like a distant memory now," Lynn remarked, scratching the back of her head. "I mean, we could do it again if you wanted-"

"I'd love to," Lana interrupted.

Lynn blushed and turned to Lincoln, who gave the duo an approving smile and nod. With that done, the tomboys exchanged looks, got off the table and ran to the backyard as Lincoln smiled and ate his sandwich.

Once they were at the backyard, the duo sat on the ground and discussed what they would do. After all, it was a beautiful day outside. Birds were blooming, flowers were singing... wait, I don't think that's how it goes.

"Okay, so I was thinking we could play something simple, something to blow off steam but that won't end up hurting each other too much, 'cause while I don't mind a little pain I think we've got enough of that for now," Lynn explained while Lana listened intently. "So, how about we play some volleyball? Or mayb Basketball? Whatever it is, It needs balls."

"How about something more simple, like fetch?" Lana suggested, catching Lynn's attention. "You throw, I catch, then we switch and so on and so forth."

Lynn looked around for a moment before answering with a nervous smile, "Sure, that sounds good too."

The athlete got up, walked to a nearby stick and picked it up as Lana got on all four and got ready to jump. But once she turned around, Lynn hesitated before throwing the stick, saying, "Do you think this is going to work, Lana?"

And then, with the stick thrown, Lana waited until it was close enough before leaping in the air, catching it with her mouth and gracefully landing on the ground like a cat, all while Lynn stood in place in amazement. Soon afterwards, Lana got up, grabbed the stick and aimed it as Lynn got on all fours.

"... Lynn, I can already tell this is going to work far better than anything Lola ever tried," Lana answered in a confident tone.

 _Speaking of Lola..._

The pageant diva woke up, and found herself in a particular location: The same room Lori found herself in when she went to the warehouse. The dark, gloomy underground laboratory, where "the truth" was held captive.

However, the atmosphere felt pretty empty, almost as if the place was desolate. And it was to be expected, none of the Four Lovers were there, not Carol, not Bobby, nor Ronnie, nobody.

It was only Lola herself... and Cristina, who flipped her chair around and revealed herself to the girl. And what's worse, Cristina looked positively delighted to meet the diva.

"Greetings, Lola," she greeted, blushing with a little smile. "I've been waiting for a chance to meet you. I sure hope this... little visit, winds up being one you'll never forget."

And then, as she got off her chair and walked forward to Lola, the pageant diva tried to escape, only to see she was tied to he chair. "L-Let me go!" Lola spat, though it wasn't clear if she was ordering or if she was pleading Cristina. "I need to go back to protect Lana!"

The redhead, however, just chuckled. "Oh really? You care about her that much? Admit it, as much as you say you know what's best, you don't understand what she's been through. She needs to spend some time alone with Lynn-"

"She has to stay as far away from that jerk as possible!" Lola hissed.

But Cristina wasn't fazed. No, she wasn't even annoyed. She was something worst: disappointed.

"Let me say it again: Lana needs to spend some time with Lynn," she started before leaning forward to meet Lola face-to-face. "And you must see the true extent of what could hurt her. Whether by other people's hands... or yours."

Lola, of course, wasn't just gonna leave the threat unresponded. "Don't be ridiculous! I would never hurt Lana!"

Sadly, Cristina simply went to Lola's side and prepared the movie, all while Lola could do nothing but watch.

"The truth" will show you just how wrong you are, dear Lola," Cristina scoffed as she grabbed a couple pincers and went back to the diva. "And the best part is, not only will you see it no matter what you do, but I have something special prepared just for you."

"W-W-What are you going to do to me?!" Lola asked

Cristina didn't even answer, she simply gave Lola an idea by grabbing, alongside pincers, a sewing kit and a bunch of needles.

So she forced Lola's eyes open using the pincers, covered her mouth with a cloth and then sat next to her as the monitor turned on and counted from 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

"Enjoy the show," Cristina told the diva as "the truth" started...

 _Back with Lana and Lynn..._

The duo had played fetch for a significant amount of time, at least, that's what the heavy panting and tired expressions indicated. So they sat underneath a tree, with Lynn leaning against it while Lana rested on Lynn's lap, talking about something.

"And then, one of my friends asked if you were actually a boy who just thought of himself like a girl," Lana said. "I didn't really answer her because, well, how was I supposed to do that? But now that I'm here with you, I have to ask, what are you?"

"Lana, I assure you, I'm a hundred percent a girl," Lynn answered. "No matter what anybody says."

"Are you lying to me just to make me happy?" Lana asked with a smile.

The duo exchanged looks before laughing out loud, which was followed by them resting on the grass to look at the clouds. "I've heard about time flying when one was having fun, but I guess this is the first time I get to see that for real," Lana remarked.

But Lynn didn't respond. Instead, she remained silent, which immediately caught Lana's attention. "Is something wrong, Lynn?" the mud lover asked, getting up and walking to the athlete.

"Lana, don't you think something doesn't feel right?" Lynn answered as she got up and dusted herself. "Like something, or someone, was missing?"

"If you mean the lack of Lola, then no, I don't see anything wrong with it," Lana crossed her arms and turned away, with the wind blowing harder as she spoke. "She's been a pain in my butt for far too long, and I'm not interested in seeing her again anytime soon!"

It was in that moment that Lynn remembered something else that had gone unnoticed until now, the twins' feelings for each other. So she walked closer to Lana, put a hand in her shoulder, and then asked, "How do you feel about Lola?"

"Stop talking about that obnoxious, selfish jerk!" Lana snapped, slapping Lynn in the process. "After everything she has done to me, after the troubles she has made me go through, after all the years I've been forced to spend time with her, I finally get the chance to take a break from that, and you're ruining it by constantly mentioning her!"

And then, the skies were covered with clouds as Lynn replied, "But our relationship isn't the only thing we need to focus on! Ever since you and Lola played the game, you've had some weird feelings, we have to focus on them too if you want to resolve them!"

"No! I'm not going to focus on my feelings, or Lola, now or tomorrow or in a while!" Lana snapped. "I've been focusing on Lola for long enough! And you can't force me to focus on her, specially when there's something else I want to focus on!"

And then, thunder was heard right before it started to rain. "Girls, it's raining, come back inside!" Lincoln called.

"Wait a moment, Lincoln!" Lynn replied. "Alright, I won't force you to do that, but we have to go inside, so tell me on what you want to focus on right here, right now."

The mud lover grabbed her hand and looked away as she answered: "I want to talk about you."

Suddenly, lighting struck behind Lynn, startling her. Not helping matters was that Lynn immediately remembered the events of the resort, and she figured it was time to talk about them, no matter how much she didn't want to do that, because she had to do it right there, right now. The incoming thunderstorm also made it clear they needed to get this over with.

"Okay, let me guess, you want to talk about what I did to you at the resort, right?" Lynn guessed with a nervous tone, making Lana look at the ground. "Alright, here's the thing, I wasn't in control of my actions, I know what I did to you was terrible, but I take all responsability from it and, even if it takes me years, I will help you. Now let's go back inside-"

However, just as she headed for the house, Lana grabbed Lynn's hand and refused to let her go. And surprisingly enough, she was strong enough to hold Lynn in place, who was actively trying to free herself.

"I understand, I accept what, and while it may take me a long time to forgive you, I believe that will happen eventually," Lana stated, her voice sounding both meek and terrified. "But that _isn't_ what I wanted to talk about."

Another lighting struck, making Lynn flinch and Lana... stood in place, seemingly not noticing what happened.

 _"This is bad!"_ Lincoln thought before he bolted inside. _"I have to tell Lori about this!"_

"Then what is it, Lana?!" Lynn snapped in both fear and exasperation. "What do you want to talk about?! What is so important that you need to tell me in the middle of a raining thunderstorm?!"

And then, Lana looked back up and revealed tears streaming down her cheeks as she answered, "I wish you were my twin instead of Lola!"

Another lighting came, but Lana jumped forward and the duo dodged it successfully. Once they finished rolling, Lynn was now on the ground, with Lana on top of her. And they exchanged looks of both worry and uncertainty.

"B-But the resort-" Lynn stuttered.

"This has _nothing_ to do with the resort!" Lana slapped the athlete. "With Lola, I feel like she's a complete stranger I'm forced to live with! She looks like me, but I don't see the girl I was born with, what I see is a jerk who would do anything to get her way! But with you, Lynn, I feel..."

Lana looked at Lynn's hands and grabbed them as she continued. "I feel like we should've been twins instead," and Lynn started to tear up as well, both out of terror and out of worry. "Just think about it: we're tomboys. We like the outdoors. We reject anything stereotypically girly. We share so much in common, so why..."

And so, another lighting bolt came towards the duo, and this time, Lynn pulled Lana into a hug as the mud lover finished:

"Why couldn't you be my twin?"

Suddenly, a miracle happened: a metal lid came out of nowhere and absorbed the lighting strike, with the electricity surrounding it for a moment before it hit the ground. And then the athlete and mud lover saw they weren't dead, they turned and saw Lori, Luna and Luan nearby, all looking angry.

"Luna! Luan! Take Lynn and Lana back inside!" Lori ordered.

The duo nodded and immediately took the pair back inside, with Lori closing the door afterwards. A little bit later, Lynn and Lana sat on the couch while the trio-more specifically Lori-scolded them.

"Why were you bloody morons still outside?!" Lori scolded as she, Luna and Luan gave Lynn and Lana furious looks. "Do you know what could have happened if Lori hadn't saved you from the lighting?!"

"We were just talking-" Lana explained.

"That's not an excuse!" Luna snapped. "Now stay here and think about what you've done. And be more careful next time, 'cause we might not be around to save your arses when that happens!"

The trio left, and Lynn and Lana exchanged looks before sulking on the couch. "How did they find out?" they asked.

"I told them," and then Lincoln walked forward, catching Lynn and Lana's attention. "I knew things would go bad if I left you alone, so I told Lori, Luna and Luan about it."

"Thanks Lincoln," Lynn said. "Could you leave us alone for now?"

The boy nodded and left, upon which Lynn asked Lana, showing off her bracelet, "Now, I need to know something: What you said at the backyard, did you genuinely meant it... or did the bracelet make you say it?"

The mud lover took a look at her own bracelet, and she was no longer so sure she was being honest with Lynn anymore. And then, someone knocked the door.

The pair went to the door, opened it... and saw only a child-sized package outside, with nobody around. So they took the package inside, read in a note next to it that it was for the Louds, and then called everybody before opening it.

Inside the package was Lola, left in a catatonic, traumatized state.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

Lola shivered, but gave Lincoln a smile and tried her best to answer. "S-She... C-Cristina-"

But then, in Lola's eyes, the world turned into a pitch black void, followed by shadowy figures, and an outline resembling Cristina with red eyes, appeared and laughed as they approached the girl

"N-N-No, I know nothing!" Lola exclaimed as she backed away. "I know absolutely nothing!"

Then, once she hit the wall, she slid to the ground and got on a fetal position as she cried:

"I know nothing! I know nothing! I know nothing!"


	31. Interrogations and Preparations

_Lola and Lana's bedroom..._

The Louds surrounded a shivering Lola, who looked around everywhere as her siblings gave her worried look. It was very clear from the girl's appearance that she would need therapy for a long time, and that she might have a bit of trouble returning to normal.

"It's okay, Lola, nobody here is going to hurt you," Lincoln told the diva in an attempt to comfort her. "We just wish to know what happened to you. Can you recall anything?"

The diva gave them no response, she just remained silent and avoided eye contact.

"Alright, Lola, listen, all you need to do is tell us, like, what happened that brought you into this... state," Leni said with a motherly tone. "So come on, tell us what happened, you can trust us."

Still no response. In fact, at this moment, she was actively looking for ways to get out of the room.

"Come on, Lola, answer me!" Lana pleaded, desperately grabbing and shaking the catatonic diva. "Please, you have to be there! You must be there! Please, tell me something! Anything!"

And then Lola answered:

"I know the truth. I know why Cristina's doing all of this."

The sisters were taken aback by the statement, but the most optimistic was Lincoln, who immediately approached the diva and asked, "So, can you tell us what you found out?"

Lola shivered, but gave Lincoln a smile and tried her best to answer. "S-She... C-Cristina-"

But then, in Lola's eyes, the world turned into a pitch black void, followed by shadowy figures, and an outline resembling Cristina with red eyes, appeared and laughed as they approached the girl

"N-N-No, I know nothing!" Lola exclaimed as she backed away. "I know absolutely nothing!"

Then, once she hit the wall, she slid to the ground and got on a fetal position as she cried:

"I know nothing! I know nothing! I know nothing!"

The sisters and Lincoln couldn't help but watch with worry, or in Lori's case, anger. "Of course she can't tell us anything, Cristina wouldn't be so stupid as to forget to prevent Lola from revealing whatever she learned," she remarked. "Looks like we're not making progress with her anytime soon."

"Maybe we should let her rest," Lincoln suggested. "Whatever Cristina did to her, it must have been terrible."

"And you notice just now?" Lori asked, raising an eyebrow.

And just as Lincoln answered, she stated, "Whatever. Everybody, that's enough for now, get out of here."

Of course, the sisters were quick to question why. "And for what reason should we leave, huh, Lori?" Lynn argued.

"Yeah, Lola doesn't need to be left alone, she needs to be close to people who will help her deal with her issues!" Lana added, earning an angry look from the teenager. "And if you want to argue that, then I seriously don't think leaving you with her is going to help at all."

"Lola isn't in the state of mind to handle a crowd this big, you're only going to make her more anxious," Lori thoroughly explained. And seeing Lola's shivering state made her claim pretty convincing. "Leni and I will stay behind to try calm her down. And once she's feeling comfortable enough to speak again, we'll try to get some information out of her. Now get out of here!"

Seeing it really was for the best, the remaining sisters and Lincoln left the room, with Lincoln giving Lori and Leni a suspicious glare before leaving for real. And then Leni closed the door just as Lola ran toward it on all four, and then clawed against it as her older sisters spoke.

"Relax, we're not going to hurt you, but we're going to make sure you tell us what you saw," Lori explained, arms folded. "After all, I saw the truth too, but I wasn't left like this. Just what did Cristina show you that brought forth such a different reaction?"

"I know nothing, honest!" Lola cried as she turned around and leaned against the wall, trying to go away from the duo. "I know nothing, I never knew anything, and nothing is the only thing I'll ever know!"

"Get comfy, baby," Leni requested as she and the girl walked towards the diva. "It looks like we're going to be here for a while. A long, long while."

 _Meanwhile, at the McBride Household..._

Clyde watched some TV when he heard somebody knock the door. He got up, opened the door, and saw both Cristina and Ronnie outside. Ronnie has her hands on her pockets and was looking at the ground, while Cristina just put on what looked like a smile, except it simply felt... off. She also looked slightly more tired than before.

"Hi Ronnie, Cristina," Clyde greeted, slightly surprised and slightly worried. "Come on in."

"Sorry for not telling you we were coming, Clyde, but I didn't manage to call you on time," Ronnie said as she and Cristina walked inside, Cristina doing so with wobbly motions. "Listen, there's something we need to discuss with you."

"Okay, but first of all, what's wrong with Cristina?" Clyde asked.

The redhead hit the floor, and both Clyde and Ronnie helped her get up as the tomboy answered, "She's been busy for a while now, checking up on the progress regarding something related to Agape. Mostly to know when she can finally kick him out of the Four Lovers," and then she nonchalantly added, "Not only that, she had to stay late in order to make sure Lola didn't spill the beans-"

Clyde released the redhead in shock. "Wait, what's this about Lola?!"

Luckily, Ronnie managed to gather enough strength to lift the redhead long enough to settle her on the couch. "Long story short, I kidnapped Lola, took her to the underground laboratory, Cristina showed her "the truth" and once she finished she had to... "convince" Lola not to reveal anything. That, and do something extra to her."

Cristina chuckled at the last part, right before falling silent once more. "What extra thing did she-" Clyde asked.

"I didn't have the guts to witness it, Clyde!" Ronnie snapped, before crossing her arms and looking away. "B-But, according to Cristina, what she did was... unpleasant."

The redhead nodded with a proud smile. "Well, what else did you want to discuss?" Clyde asked. "Surely you didn't come here just to rub it on my face what a jerk Cristina is."

Ronnie was quick to answer: "Jerk's a bit of an understatement, Clyde. And yes, we do have something else to discuss: your new mission."

Clyde flinched as Cristina clasper her hands and Ronnie explained. "You see, with Lola and Lori having learned about "the truth", it's only a matter of time before Lincoln and his sisters wonder what "the truth" is all about. They will investigate, research, maybe even try to capture us in order to squeeze the information out of us in order to find out something about it."

"And what does that have to do with this new mission?" Clyde asked, right before he got an idea. "You're not going to ask me to force them to see this "truth" you're talking about, are you?"

Cristina and Ronnie exchanged looks.

 _Back at the Loud House..._

Lana walked back and forth as she heard some stuff happening upstairs. More specifically, she could hear Lola repeating her desperate cry of "I know nothing!" while Lori and Leni tried to speak to her. And needless to say, it wasn't anything pretty to listen to.

And just in that moment, Lynn arrived and caught Lana's attention. "Lynn..." she said, stopping right on her tracks. "Lola's interrogation is bothering you too?"

"Yeah, I mean I know we're surnamed Loud for a reason, but seriously, Lola's such a screeching mess. It wouldn't be nearly as annoying if she wasn't being so _loud_ , am I right?" Lynn joked, earning an angry look from Lana. "Sorry, with Luan having to rest her mouth, somebody has to make the terrible jokes. And because everybody's been in a grumpy mood lately, I'm left as the comedian."

"I know, with Luan being quiet for once, to Luna not rocking out for a while now, to Lucy... actually, she hasn't changed much, but something is definitely wrong with Lori and Leni, so there's that," Lana recapped as she sat on the couch. "This doesn't feel like the Loud House we're used to. The Loud House were we lived."

"I share your sadness."

The duo jumped in fear and saw it was none other than Lucy, sitting on the floor and looking at the ground. "In the Loud house that I remember, everybody was scared by me seemingly appearing out of nowhere, but now I don't do that anymore, I just... don't appear at all," Lucy explained. "And even when I do, I can count the amount of time people have been scared because of me in one hand. I miss the old times."

And, almost as if on cue, Lisa arrived. "I know how you feel, my analysis has shown that ever since Lincoln brought the videogame and we played it, the Loud household has slowly changed from it's original state," she explained, handing each of her sisters an analysis chart. "And unfortunately, it doesn't end there. I have continued my research and-"

But then, some chuckling caught everyone's attention. And when they turned around, they saw it was Lucy who was laughing at whatever Lisa. Nobody knew what was worse: that the house had changed so much, that it apparently wouldn't stop changing, or that whatever Lucy got was something she found funny.

The duchess of darkness, finding something Lisa gave her, funny.

"Did I give you an extended analysis on the probabilities of the zombie apocalypse by mistake, Lucy?" Lisa asked, approaching the goth.

"No, it's even better," Lucy answered, right before she revealed to everybody else that her chart wasn't so much about the changes about the household, but a shipping chart with Lincoln at the center and the sisters-minus Lily-circling around. "A shipping chart. Classic."

And as Lana and Lynn laughed, Lisa blushed and took away the chart as Lucy continued to smile. Somehow, a smiling Lucy was more unnerving than a normal Lucy.

"I-I-It's not what you think!" the little genius proclaimed before explaining, "This is a chart showing the changes between the relationships of us and our sisters, according to what has happened up until this point. Luan and Luna became lovers, Lori and Leni seem to be master and servant, and I'm stuck regarding Lucy and Lynn and Lola and Lana!"

But the laughter continued. "Why are you laughing?!"

"Because Lisa Loud, certified genius of the Loud House, actually made a shipping chart!" Lana answered. "It's just so ridiculous!"

"Whatever, I want you to focus on Lincoln," Lisa added. "In particular, see how, regardless of whatever is going on with the bracelets or chips or whatever, Lincoln is left out of the mess. When the chips changed us, his own was defective. And now, with the bracelets, he wasn't changed in personality, but he was turned into the object of affection."

"Now that you mention, the fact that Lincoln seems to be left out of this whole mess is pretty weird," Lynn remarked. "I mean, he's left out in general, but since this has affected all of us, it's weird _he's_ not included in all this stuff."

"Indeed, and I have the feeling there's a reason for that," Lisa said before saving her chart on her pocket. "Something tells me Cristina has some plans for him, and it requires that he doesn't end up affected by the mess. But that's all I've been able to figure out."

And then Lincoln arrived, catching his sisters' attention. "Um, did I walk in an inappropriate moment?" he asked nervously.

"Lincoln, we need to discuss something with you," the sisters stated in unison.

 _With Lori, Leni, and Lola, oh my!_

Lola clung against a wall as Lori and Leni sat on her bed, both looking tired and exasperated. "I'll be a nice girl, I'll do anything you wish, but please, stop asking me about the truth!" Lola pleaded, barely holding herself together. "I don't want to think about it anymore. I must know nothing. I can't learn anything."

"Geez, Cristina really messed her up," Lori remarked. "But why would she let me go with slight scars and mess up Lola this badly?"

"Perhaps she wanted to turn you into a Lover all along," Leni suggested, catching Lori's attention. "Speaking of which, why don't you contact your mentor?"

"Oh right, I have one of those," Lori turned on her earpiece. "Come in, Carol, you there?"

"Junior! It's been a while! What do you need?" the lady gleefully said on the other end.

"Lola came back home inside a box in a catatonic, and quite frankly messed up, state of mind," Lori explained. "I would like to know if you have any idea of what did Cristina do to her."

But Carol fell silent. And then, she spoke:

"Alright, Junior, if you really have to know, there's one thing you have to do: look up her dress, lift her skirt, just take a look at her crotch. Then, you will see how lucky you were."

And then Lori and Leni exchanged worried looks before they approached the girl. And predictably, she was terrified of what would come next. "Okay, let's see what happened to you," Lori remarked as she crouched down and Leni grabbed Lola's arms.

Her dress was lifted and the duo saw two things: One, that Lola had basically gone commando since she arrived.

And two... well...

What they saw wasn't nice.

"Holy shit!" Lori and Leni shouted in unison as Lori released Lola and the two backed away. The duo closed their eyes and grabbed their heads as Lori snapped, "Cristina, of all the crap you could have done to my sister, why did you have to do that?!"

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight," Leni said, her voice growing meek and scared. "I mean, I know Lola could be an annoying brat, but she didn't deserve... this..."

"To believe I'm working for the bitch who did such a thing to my sister..." Lori muttered, right before turning her earpiece back on. "Carol, we saw what Cristina did to Lola and-"

 _"Let me take a guess, you want to tear Cristina apart, and draw out her suffering long enough to drive her insane?"_ Carol replied, shutting up-and partially disturbing-Lori in the process. _"Well, it's a joke on you on two levels: One, Cristina went nuts a long time ago, and two, she didn't do what happened to your sister, she just made sure it was done."_

"Then who did it?!" Lori snapped.

And Carol answered, in a matter-of-fact tone:

"Bobby and I did it."

In that instant, Lori's entire world shattered. Bobby, her ex-boyfriend and one of the kindest guys she knows, had a hand in doing "that" to her sister. Carol also had a hand in it, but she didn't like her in the first place, so she wasn't surprised.

She couldn't believe it. It had to be a lie... Wait...

"Carol, how do I know you're not lying?" Lori asked.

"Hehehe... now you're starting to sound like your old self, Junior," Carol scoffed. "Listen, it would save you a ton of trouble if you just went back to the warehouse, and find the place where "the truth" was revealed to you."

And then the earpiece turned off, and no matter how much Lori pressed it, it wouldn't turn back on. "Well, I guess we know where we're going next," Lori stated, giving Leni a determined look. "We're heading to the warehouse."

"What about Lola?" Leni pointed out.

And then the duo turned back to see the girl shivering against the wall.

"I'm sure Luna and Luan can deal with her," Lori remarked.

The duo nodded, left the room, and then shoved the rock girl and comedian into the room, before hastily answering "We gotta go, deal with her until we're back" and closing the door. With that done, Luna and Luan exchanged surprised looks with Lola, who looked back in confusion.

 _Back with Lincoln, Lisa and the other sisters..._

Lincoln watched Lisa's shipping chart while the little genius-alongside Lynn, Lana and Lucy-watched nearby. Lisa in particular looked pretty worried as Lincoln finished reading the chart and put it aside.

"S-So, what do you think?" Lisa asked, twiddling her fingers.

"Lisa, there's only one thing I don't understand," Lincoln replied. "Why did you make a shipping chart?"

The other sisters laughed as Lisa brushed off her embarrassment, then took the chart and shouted, "Take, a look, at the center!"

"Yeah, I'm in there, and while I am a little upset that I'm not with anybody, I can't help but notice that nothing bad has happened to me," Lincoln answered. "I mean, you chasing me while being madly in love with me was bad, but after that, nothing much happened."

"Yes, and that's why I believe that you're a key in Cristina's plan!" Lisa exclaimed as she walked to her laptop. "Why else would everything that has happened up to this point, not affect you in the same way it affected us?"

Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "I still don't really see what you want to say," and then he and the sisters went closer to the laptop, where it was very much the same chart... only with a large black circle titled "the truth" in it. "Why is there a large back circle in the middle of the new chart, titled... "the truth?"

"Lincoln, as Lola has clearly demostrated, whatever "the truth" is supposed to be, it's clear that it can cause a lot of damage if we don't do anything about it," Lisa remarked. "Regardless how Cristina found it, or the way it works, we need to find it and make sure Cristina can't use it anymore."

"Wait, are you implying what I think you're implying?" Lincoln asked, backing away a little. "Because if you are, let me tell you that it's crazy!"

"So is this whole situation, but this is a type of crazy we can deal with!" Lynn argued, putting her arms in her hips.

"Everybody get ready," Lisa swapped her normal glasses for sunglasses. "We're going to look for the truth."

"Okay, but how?" Linc asked.

And just as Lisa's confidence was brought down, the team heard Leni and Lori talking nearby.

"Alright, Lori, lead the way to the truth."

"Be quiet! We don't want anybody else to hear us, remember?!"

And this gave the team just what they needed.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Looks like Lori and Leni are coming back here," Bobby remarked, his tone growing worried once he saw Linc and the younger sisters. "And Lincoln and the younger sisters are chasing after them? In the rain?"

"You know, for being a bunch of obnoxious kids, they do seem to be pretty determined," Carol said, legitimately impressed.

"You can say that about his sisters, but Lincoln is a tad more important than you give him credit for," Cristina stated, slapping herself before she fell asleep.


	32. Into the Warehouse

_Underneath the Warehouse..._

Cristina, alongside Bobby and Carol, watched as the large monitor turned on and revealed Lori and Leni driving straight for the warehouse, with Lincoln and the younger sisters chasing after it. While Bobby and Carol looked relatively fine, Cristina had bags under her eyes and her eyes were bloodshot.

"Looks like Lori and Leni are coming back here," Bobby remarked, his tone growing worried once he saw Linc and the younger sisters. "And Lincoln and the younger sisters are chasing after them? In the rain?"

"You know, for being a bunch of obnoxious kids, they do seem to be pretty determined," Carol said, legitimately impressed.

"You can say that about his sisters, but Lincoln is a tad more important than you give him credit for," Cristina stated, slapping herself before she fell asleep. "Now, would you kindly make sure Lori and Leni can get in?"

Bobby and Carol's eyes turned bright green, followed by them saying "Yes, boss" in unison, monotone voices. And as they left, Cristina turned off the monitor and went to another part of the underground facility. She walked across a laboratory filled with testing tubes, a torture room that looked like it was just used... and a small room isolated from the others, with a table and two chairs, alongside a beautiful sunset as a backdrop.

"Great, the setup has been prepared," Cristina said, clasping her hands as she yawned. "Now we just Lincoln to come here."

"Cristina, we have to talk."

The redhead put on a smug, almost perverted, smile as she turned around and saw Ronnie Anne approaching her. She wasn't using her normal attire, however, instead her hair was down and she was wearing a purple backless dress, with black heels and a pair of silver earrings.

"What is there to discuss? You look downright gorgeous, girl!" Cristina responded, earning a furious glare from Ronnie. "Alright, tell me what you want."

"This doesn't make any sense whatsoever!" Ronnie snapped, flailing her arms. "How is this supposed to get Lincoln to forget about everything that has happened up to this point?!"

"Easy: beautiful scenery, plus gorgeous dress, plus amazing date, equals Lincoln failing to think of anything but what's going on right now," the redhead replied. "And then, when he's fully tranced... well, you know what to do next."

"Actually, I don't, because you've been far too damn vague for my liking!" the raven-haired girl put her hands on her hips as Cristina's smile turned into a frown. "I know you don't like to be so blunt, but you don't have to be a walking enigma either! Just spit out what you want me to do and I promise you, I'll try to do my best about it!"

Cristina rolled her eyes, walked closer to Ronnie and then whispered the plan to Ronnie's ear. And then she did the "finger into hole" gesture to make it a little bit more clear.

Ronnie narrowed her eyes, almost as if she had to go through this at least once before. "Are you serious?" she asked, earning a deadpan nod from the redhead. "Listen, I've put up with a lot of your crap lately, but this is too much. If you won't take this seriously, I'm taking off this dress and-"

Then, with no warning whatsoever, Cristina bared her teeth and strangled Ronnie, who she pinned against a wall.

"Now listen up, Ronnie Anne, and listen really damn well!" Cristina snarled, tightening her grip at the girl's neck, "I've wasted a lot of my time setting up the best date possible between you and Lincoln, and I plan to strike two birds with one stone, so you better not get any dumb idea and do anything but what I've told you to do! Because you owe me a lot, Ronnie Anne!"

Then, Cristina slammed Ronnie's face against the wall, though not in a way that would hurt her face. After all, she had to look pretty for her "date" with Lincoln.

"It's thanks to me that you know the true colors, the real darkness hidden in Royal Woods!" Cristina spat, leaning closer to Ronnie. "It's because of me that you know what will happen if we do nothing about that darkness!"

"It's because of you, that we're all trapped in this mess in the first place!" Ronnie suddenly growled, holding a defiant stare. "And it's because of you, that it will all end in failure. That this will all be for nothing. That you'll end up incarcerated and rotting in jail for the rest of your pathetic life!"

Cristina, clenching her teeth, threw Ronnie against another wall and then took a firm grip towards her hands as she said, "I'm very damn close to losing my cool, Ronnie, and all I've done up to this point has been whie I'm basically restrained! Do you know what I will do when I snap? Do you want to know such a thing? No, you don't, and neither do I!"

And then, she leaned close enough to meet Ronnie face-to-face. "So let's cut straight to the chase, alright?"

Then came the magic words:

"Would you kindly make sure this date goes well, that Lincoln gets the tickets and accepts to go to the ball, and that you two have a good time?"

Ronnie's eyes turned bright green, with her saying as she a pair of tears with... a smile:

"Y-Yes... Cristina."

 _Back outside..._

Lincoln and his younger sisters hid inside the bushes as Lori and Leni stopped the car in front of the warehouse, which they followed by getting out of the car and opening a pair of umbrellas.

"Okay, here we are, the building where-" Lori remarked, right before she saw Leni walking towards a nearby store. "Leni, where are you going?!"

"I'm going to relieve some stress," Leni nonchalantly answered.

Lori chased after Leni as she went inside, giving Lincoln and the sisters' the chance to head into the warehouse unopposed.

As for Lori and Leni themselves, Lori entered the store and saw Leni buy something. It didn't matter to Lori, what mattered to her was that Leni was wasting their time with buying nonsense.

"Leni, we have something important to do and we have to do it now!" Lori snapped, approaching Leni. "Would you please explain to me why you would rather waste time buying-"

And then Leni turned around and revealed what she had brought: a pair of normal cigarettes, alongside a red lighter. The instant Lori saw the things, she flinched and fell silent, almost as if the objects reminded her of something... unpleasant.

"A pair of cigarettes?" Lori blurted, backing away a little.

"We've been under a lot of stress, don't you think?" Leni replied. "I think we should try to blow off some steam, in a more practical and less "strip naked" way."

But Lori didn't respond, she remained silent and listened as Leni took her outside, where they sat under a table with an umbrella. As she was handed a cigarette, Lori saw that Leni wasn't in a very cheery mood. In fact, the atmosphere around her felt very un-Leni like, with a somber, exhausted anger.

"And seeing that I'm, like, literally too stupid know better, I suggest we smoke these things," Leni turned on the lighter. "After all, if we're going to do something important, we should do it stress-free."

"But we're not old enough for this!" Lori replied. "Besides, these things could end up killing us!"

"You speak as if death wasn't a preferable thing to what's happening right now," Leni leaned her lighter closer to her cigarette. "We've been forced to act different, we've been forced to realize bad things, and Cristina isn't likely going to stop anytime soon either. Whatever she wants, she'll make sure that we end up suffering royally before she gets it!"

And then Leni set her cigarette on fire, forcing her to throw it into the rain. "Okay, I guess the universe agrees with you: We're not old enough to smoke," Leni remarked. "But if we don't smoke, how are we supposed to relieve some stress?"

"In any way other than this one!" Lori stated.

Lori threw the cigarette into the rain as well, and just as she reached for Leni's lighter, the girl grabbed her arm and held it tightly. "You got rid of the cigarettes, there's no need to get rid of the lighter too," she argued, her tone making it clear she wasn't in the mood to talk anymore. "Now how about we do that important thing you mentioned earlier?"

"Not until you tell me why you thought smoking would help us," Lori replied, trying even harder to break free. "I know you're stupid, but this stupid feels like you were doing it on purpose. And I believe that's because something's upsetting you."

"A lot of things upset me, Lori: school, bad fashion," then she finished, with a tone of resentment, "You."

Lori somewhat understandably, was surprised by the statement. "Wait, you're still angry at me? Why?" Lori asked, and Leni simply glared back. "Come on, Leni, it's been a while already! I figured you would have moved on past whatever's bothering you! Did it happen recently or-"

"This isn't about anything recent, Lori," the fashionista sternly answered, making her older sister. "What I'm angry about is something you refuse to acknowledge. Something you either ignore or outright refuse to fix, if only to keep an absolute over all of us, which you don't even deserve."

It wasn't long before Lori got an idea of what Leni was talking about, but by then, the teenager simply decided to spit it out:

"Your control freak tendencies."

Lori soon got an idea of what she was talking about, and she wasn't very pleased. "Wait, my control freak tendencies?" she repeated, but Leni didn't respond. "Need I remind you the complete chaos that befalled our house when my "control freak tendencies" were replaced by Lincoln? How about the time where-"

"Allow me to stop you right there, and tell you _this_ is why we need to talk: you only focus on the events that put you in a positive light. Quite a selfish, naive way of seeing things, don't you think?" Leni remarked, sounding like she was giving her sister some condescending pity.

And then she slammed her fist into the table and gave Lori a stern glare. "Now it's time to focus on the bad side of your control freakness!"

"Oh please, just try to mention one event where I showed such a thing!" Lori scoffed.

Leni just smirked, her eyes glowing green...

 _Inside the Warehouse..._

Lincoln and the sisters looked around everywhere in hopes of finding anything that could help them get closer to "the truth" Cristina had used so much. However, the only things they managed to find were a bunch of empty cardboard boxes, though in Lucy's case she also found inside them some "shipping charts," with a majority of the pairings minus Lincoln and Ronnie marked with a red X.

"Heh, Lincoln, I think Cristina wants you to be together with Ronnie," Lucy remarked, showing her brother the chart. "I don't know which is more disturbing: the fact that Cristina thinks you and Ronnie make a cute couple, or the fact that I and the rest of our sisters share something with that psychopath."

"I don't get it, why would Lori and Leni come here if there isn't anything related to the truth?" Lisa pondered, right before she noticed something shining in the distance. "Wait, what's that?"

Everybody ran to the shiny thing and saw it was a laptop, seemingly connected to a large network of... something. Not only that, but the laptop was already turned on, with a password bar being the only thing seen in the screen.

"Please insert 9-digit password," requested a mechanial, feminine voice.

"Use Ronnicoln," Lucy suggested. "It's your and Ronnie's name together."

"Let's not hop into conclusions just yet," Lincoln replied before he got an idea. "Let's start with something simple: My own name."

Shortly afterwards however, the screen glowed red before turning back to normal. "Password rejected, 2 attempts remain," said the mechanical voice.

"We only have a set number of tries?!" Linc exclaimed in shock. "Okay, uh, how about Ronnie Anne?"

"Wait, Linc, that's not-" Lisa said.

The system went through the same glow. "Password rejected, 1 attempt remaining," said the mechanical voice.

"That's too long," Lisa finished.

So, seeing he had no other choice, Lincoln wrote down Ronniecoln, the suggested pairing name between him and Ronnie... and the entire building shook violently as sirens blared, with the laptop glowing an even more intense red as the mechanical voice turned into a rather... familiar pitch:

"You dare try to find out the truth on your own?!" the voice said, sounding like a maniac. "Well then, if you want to know the truth, then you will learn the truth, or go mad trying!"

 _"Cristina?"_ everybody thought upon hearing the voice.

And then a large trap door opened underneath the team, sending them plummeting to underneath the warehouse. And it didn't end there, for Lori and Leni barged into the building and saw the open trap door.

"Great, looks like somebody beat us to the punchline," Leni remarked as she looked closer at the trap door, while Lori checked the laptop.

"Who do you think it was?" Lori asked, closing the laptop. "I really hope it wasn't Lincoln."

"Lori, I hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure Lincoln is at the very least involved in this," Leni said as Lori walked back to her side. "Anyway, we should better head down there and take a look for ourselves. Would you kindly come with me?"

Lori's eyes turned green... before they turned back to normal, followed by Lori grabbing a confused Leni and jumping down the trap door with her. This itself was followed by what sounded like another car parking close to the warehouse, and a shadowy figure to approach the door...

 _Underneath the warehouse..._

Lincoln and his sisters screamed as they fell, only stopping once they literally crash-landed into the ground in an enclosed space with two paths: One left and one right. Once that was done, they all got up and dusted themselves before going forward to the junction.

"Well, that could have gone better," Lincoln remarked. "What do we do now?"

"Looks like we have to split," Lisa remarked. "Lincoln, you and I are going to take the path to the left, everybody else take the path to the right."

And just as everybody complained about it, Lisa walked to the left path... and was immediately blocked by a large, white force field. To say the sight was baffling would be an understatement.

"A force field?! But these things are only ever seen in fiction!" Lisa exclaimed as Lincoln walked to her and inspected the force field. "Well, Lincoln, looks like we have to-"

But then, Lincoln went forth to the left path... and successfully managed to enter, leaving his sisters behind as they couldn't go past the force field. "It looks like I'm the only one allowed to go to this path."

"But Lincoln, what if-" Lynn said.

"Don't worry, I'll be extra careful," Lincoln answered. "You guys head to the other path, we'll meet again once we deal with whatever comes up ahead."

Lisa, though reluctantly, nodded in agreement and she and her sisters went to the remaining path, while Lincoln walked deeper inside his path. However, just as they went on their way, Cristina-watching through the giant monitor-smirked maliciously before speaking to her earpiece.

"Clyde, Carol, Bobby, make sure the sisters understand that they should never see Lincoln again."

"W-Wait, what?!" Clyde asked.

"Would you kindly do me that favor?" Cristina smugly asked, chuckling as she got a triple deadpan response:

"Yes, Master Cristina."

And just as the trio fell silent, Cristina saw Lori and Leni reach the junction, followed by Lori going to the right path while Leni went to the left path. "Hello, Leni, my old pal," Cristina greeted, though Leni quickly noticed the facade. "I need to ask you a favor-"

"Sorry, Cookie Crisp, but I'm not following you for now," Leni replied. "I have to talk with Lincoln on my own."

"Would you kindly make sure nothing bad happens to Lincoln?" Cristina ordered.

But Leni just as quickly replied:

"Would you kindly leave me alone for now?"

The redhead, surprised at the fact the words didn't work, turned off her earpiece just as Leni continued on her way. "Well, no matter, I still have Clyde, Carol and Bobby to deal with the sisters! I also have Agape, but he's not going to help," Cristina said, clasping her hands... while the shadowy figure approached her. "All I need to do is sit back and relax and-"

"Stop this nonsense and go to sleep."

The girl turned around and saw it was none other than Mrs. Johnson behind her, and she was definitely angry. A vein nearly popped in her forehead, steam came out of her ears, and her frown was so stern it would probably wind up giving her wrinkles.

It was in that moment Cristina knew she was screwed.

"M-Mom, what a surprise to see you here," she nervously said. "W-What are you doing here-"

And then the woman grabbed Cristina by the neck of her shirt and dragged her out of the building, with the girl trying to break free all the while.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

When Lincoln opened his script, the rest of it came out and revealed it reached the floor. "Please tell me those cameras are going to be offline for a while," Linc told to Leni, fear evident in his voice.

"A half hour at best, half of that at worst," the teenager bluntly responded.

"Which should be long enough to let you learn the script," Ronnie added. "So how about we learn it together?"

Lincoln took one look at Ronnie's reassuring smile, and then he returned the smile with a nod of agreement.


	33. Linconnie

_Back at the Johnson Household..._

Mrs. Johnson dragged a whining Cristina to her room, where she threw her in and grabbed the doorknob as the little redhead recovered and pleaded, "Please mom, you have to let me see the events under the warehouse unfold!" the girl clasped her hands and fell on her knees. "This is the culmination of everything I've been hoping for! Every sacrifice, everything I've done has lead up to this moment, and minus a minor thing I have prepared, this is the last thing I'll do! Please, I need to see it happen!"

"You need to go to your bed and sleep!" Mrs. Johnson hissed in return. "It's been days since you've slept for a healthy amount of time."

The little redhead looked at the ground in apparent regret.

"Go to your bed and think about what you've done," the woman added as she slowly closed the door. "I'll be downstairs working on some tests, so don't even try to see a video about it or something. Though I'm not even sure how would you do that."

The woman closed the door, and Cristina closed her eyes and sulked... right before she opened them again as a lighting struck behind her window. Then, she took out her laptop from a nearby backpack, turned it on and did a couple things as she single-mindedly thought:

 _"Sorry mom, but I must see this with my own eyes!"_

The end result was that Cristina accessed a couple cameras showing both the sisters going closer to the laboratory, and Lincoln going closer to the place he would date Ronnie Anne. The redhead smirked up until she saw Lori and Leni follow the teams.

 _"That blonde butthat better not ruin this for me!"_ she thought as she narrowed her eyes.

 _With Lincoln..._

The guy walked across a large hallway, filled with pictures of him and Ronnie Anne, either on dates, holding hands, or other cutesy couple stuff. Needless to say, Lincoln wasn't particularly pleased by the picture-filled hallway.

"Geez, somebody really wants to see me and Ronnie Anne together," he quietly remarked, before turning back to the road. "Not that I would mind that, but I think we need to take our time with it."

And then the guy stopped right on his tracks, feeling like he was being followed. So he formed a pair of fists, turned around... and saw there was nothing behind him. Then he turned back around and saw Leni right in front of him.

"Leni?!" Linc exclaimed, backing away a little.

 _"You weren't part of my headcanon!"_ Cristina thought.

"Listen, Lincoln, what you're about to reach might not be something you'll be able to deal with on your own," Leni said before crouching down to her brother's height. "So, how about I come with you as a wingman of sorts?"

 _"Oh right, I forgot to include the wingman!"_ Cristina slapped herself. _"Why do I always forget the most important details?!"_

"Sure, I don't mind," Linc replied, catching Cristina's attention. "I just have one question: what awaits me at the end of this hallway?"

Leni just chuckled. "You'll see soon enough."

The duo walked forth to the end of the hallway, with Lincoln's worries having been amplified by Leni's vague answer. Once they reached the end, Lincoln and Leni found themselves in the date room, with Ronnie Anne sitting alone in the table, looking at the ground.

Lincoln blinked twice before trying to walk back, but he was stopped by Leni. "Lincoln, believe it or not, there's no other way to go," Leni explained, giving her brother a reassuring look. "You have to go on a date with Ronnie, and here it is. Take it, it's the only chance you have... and the only thing you can do at the moment."

Lincoln swallowed his fears and walked forth as a bunch of cameras, 6 in total, watched him towards the table. He sat down on the other chair and took a look at Ronnie, wearing her beautiful dress, and the food on the table, a pair of simple plates filled with sphagetti and meatballs, the most romantic of foods.

"So, uh, R-Ronnie?" Lincoln asked, catching the tomboy's attention. "What's the occasion? What's going on?"

"I wish I could tell you, Linc, I really do," Ronnie said before turning to a nearby camera. "But we're being watched."

 _"No, don't break the fourth wall! You're ruining the immersion!"_ Cristina mentally whined. _"Go back to the date and stop ruining it for me!"_

Ronnie turned back to Lincoln and Leni came out of nowhere and threw knives at all the cameras, successfully breaking them. _"What just happened?!"_ Cristina thought in disbelief.

"Leni, are you a ninja or something?!" Lincoln exclaimed in surprise.

"Okay, thanks for that, buddy," Ronnie said as she adjusted her hair and turned back to Lincoln, all while Leni gave her an annoyed look. "Now we can talk in peace. And trust me Lincoln, there's a lot to discuss. For starters, this all has been set up by Cristina."

"Of course, why didn't I think she'd be involved in this?" Lincoln sarcastically remarked. "Anything else I should know about this?"

Ronnie then took out a pair of scripts, and handed one to Lincoln. "She actually made a really long script for this event, one for me and one for you," Ronnie explained. "Trust me, it's best if we make her think she's still in control for now, so try to act natural."

When Lincoln opened his script, the rest of it came out and revealed it reached the floor. "Please tell me those cameras are going to be offline for a while," Linc told to Leni, fear evident in his voice.

"A half hour at best, half of that at worst," the teenager bluntly responded.

"Which should be long enough to let you learn the script," Ronnie added. "So how about we learn it together?"

Lincoln took one look at Ronnie's reassuring smile, and then he returned the smile with a nod of agreement.

 _Back with Cristina..._

 _"Just when I'm starting to enjoy the scene, the dang cameras wind up broken!"_ the redhead whined as she input some codes.

The codes eventually wound up giving her access to a "Camera Repair and Replace System" that, once she pushed the "replace and repair" button, showed a half hour left before the cameras were ready.

 _"Great, I have to wait a half hour until they work again, what am I supposed to do until then?"_ she thought in annoyance.

And then she remembered that there were still some Louds in the other path, the path that would lead them to "the children." Now, even thought Cristina couldn't care less about that at the moment, she had no other choice, so she input some codes and got another screen, this one showing the Louds walking on the other hallway.

 _"I guess I should take a look at what these assholes are doing too,"_ Cristina thought. _"But nothing's going to beat Ronnie and Lincoln's date."_

 _With the other Louds..._

The girls continued to walk down the long hallway-filled with pictures of girls that looked like a mix between them and Lincoln-while they felt someone following them. Of course, Lori followed them in the shadows, watching intently as they walked along.

"Hey, Lana," Lynn remarked, catching the mud lover's attention. "About the whole "I wish you were my twin sisters instead" business, were you being honest?"

Lana immediately felt a shiver go up her spine upon hearing the question. "I was in the middle of some strong emotional distress back then, Lynn," Lana nervously answered, twiddling her fingers. "I'm not in the mood to talk about it."

"Okay, but you do realize we'll have to talk about it sooner, right?" Lynn replied, but Lana didn't respond. "Alright, let's stop talking about it for now."

Lana gave Lynn a pleased smile and continued to walk while Lucy approached Lisa. "Is something bothering you?" the poet asked, catching Lisa's attention. "I can see that you're feeling uneasy, Lisa."

"H-H-How is that even possible?!" Lisa stuttered, focusing solely on the road ahead.

"You're quiet and aren't even remarking about the pictures around this hallway," Lucy explained. "Granted, we're not doing that either, but that's because we're too shocked by the images. This shouldn't be anything weird to you, though, so what's the problem?"

"It's this hallway," Lisa said, looking at the ground. "I can't help but feel like we're walking straight for something terrible. Something we shouldn't see yet. But we have no other choice, the other path only accepts Lincoln-"

"We never confirmed that, actually," Lucy pointed out.

And just as Lisa thought about it, Lori shrieked like a banshee and scared the girls into running to the end of the hallway, with both her and Cristina chuckling at the sight. _"Okay, I did enjoy that,"_ the redhead mentally confessed.

As for where the girls wound up, they found themselves in a decrepit, though somehow still perfectly functional, laboratory filled with blueprints for clones, or at the very least homunculus, which beared a great resemblance to the children depicted in the pictures

"What is this place?" Lynn asked as she took a look around.

"And why do those things on the blue papers look like the drawings from the hallway?" Lana inquired, approaching a blueprint. "Lina Loud? Daughter of Lana Loud and Lincoln Loud?!"

Lynn immediately ran to Lana's side and saw the blueprint. "Lana's right, it does say such a thing!" the athlete remarked before looking at her "daughter's" blueprint. "And my blueprint says Lynx, daughter of Lynn Loud and Lincoln Loud."

Lucy walked to her "daughter's" blueprint and saw her name was Lupa, daughter of herself and Lincoln. "That is the most disturbing thing I've seen today," the poet remarked in her usual stoic tone.

Lisa walked to the blueprint of her "Daughter" and saw she was named Lilo, and she was her and Lincoln's daughter. "Why would anybody make these things?" the little genius pondered, followed by her getting a horrifying idea. "Unless..."

 _"I guess I should confirm her suspicions,"_ Cristina thought as she pushed a button.

Somehow, that single action caused parts of the floor to open up and reveal a bunch of test tubes filled with a green liquid. Inside these tubes were humanoid girls-covered just by a white dress-connected to some inner machinery. None of them had complete bodies, instead, some simply had missing limbs while others had whole parts of their bodies developing from meat to skin and so on.

"W-Who are these?" Lisa asked as she approached the test tube nearest to her.

The tube she approached contained a girl very similar to the one in the blueprints for her daughter, but missing part of her head and her arms. Then, just as she touched the tube, the girl opened her single eye and uttered "Mama" in a terrified tone.

Understandably, Lisa freaked out and backed away as the girl started to smash her head against the glass, trying to break free. "W-What's going on?!" Lisa screamed.

 _"Ugh, they're freaking out again,"_ Cristina thought as she input a couple of codes. _"I should better tranquilize them before they go any crazier."_

With a single push of a button, the test tubes released shockwaves that caused all the girls to scream as the tubes returned underground, with the ground closing soon afterwards. This did nothing to calm down Lisa and the girls, in fact, it probably scared them even more.

"What was that all about?!" Lana exclaimed, hugging Lynn. "First test tubes come out, then a girl inside those hings calls you mama, and then the tubes go back down while the girl is electrocuted while screaming in agony?!"

"Yeah, that was pretty messed up," Lynn said.

And then Lisa gestured everybody to follow her, and they walked deeper inside the laboratory, with Lori following them behind. Luckily for Cristina, she heard the cameras being replaced and immediately returned to the other screen, showing Lincoln and Ronnie eating their food, with Leni nowhere to be seen.

"Finally, my soup opera is back!" Cristina thought in joy. "Now let's see this beauty unfold."

Lincoln finished eating first and asked like a gentleman, "So, Ronnie, did you like the food?"

"It was delicious, Lincoln," Ronnie replied, acting like a princess. "Thanks for inviting me for dinner."

"Only the best for my girlfriend," Lincoln answered.

Ronnie blushed and did the "oh you" gesture, all while Leni watched from the shadows and Cristina giggled to herself in relief. Shortly after they finished eating, the duo got up, the table just... slid away, and then Lincoln extended his hand forward to Ronnie.

"Would you like to dance, Ronnie?" Lincoln requested, giving the girl a wink.

The tomboy grabbed Linc's hand and returned the wink as she responded, "I'd love to, Lincoln."

Elegant ball music was heard across the room as Lincoln and Ronnie danced to the slow beat, all while Cristina looked... like she was starting to get tired of the romanticism and wanted them to go beyond. But for the next 5 minutes, they continued to dance, with Cristina's patience growing thinner by the second.

"Lincoln, are you stalling for time too?" Ronnie whispered to his ear.

"I just can't believe the next part of the script!" Linc whispered back in disbelief. "Why would Cristina even add such a thing?!"

"She lost her mind a long time ago, she probably didn't see anything wrong with it," Ronnie looked away and then turned to the cameras, which were still filming them. "We can't stall forever, but tell me, are you okay with making it look like we'll go beyond?"

"No, I'm not, and specially not when a psychopath is looking at me!" Linc answered.

Suddenly, Ronnie tightly held Lincoln and pulled back, causing the two to fall to the ground. Lincoln landed on top of Ronnie, who held on of his hands as he shadow covered her, but mostly her head. "Lincoln, what are you doing?" Ronnie asked in feigned confusion.

 _"Finally, things are getting good!"_ Cristina thought, crossing her arms.

"Ronnie... I can't wait anymore..." Lincoln said, leaning forward to meet her face-to-face. "I need to be inside you... I need to make you mine..."

The tomboy remained silent, unable to think of a response. But then she remembered the script: She wasn't supposed to fight back, or even say anything in return. She just had to lay back and think of anything other than the current situation. So she closed her eyes... and Lincoln froze in place. He just couldn't do what

 _"Come on, you selfish albino, give me my steamy good-"_ Cristina ordered, right before Leni popped out again and broke the cameras once more. _"Oh come on!"_

Back with the trio, Leni helped the duo get up and dusted them. "I'm sorry, I simply can't do what the script demands next," Lincoln said in regret. "It feels so... dirty!"

"It's okay, I was hoping you wouldn't go through with it either," Ronnie replied. "But we have little time before the cameras are fixed again. Leni, can you make us look like we did... "that?"

The teenager nodded and cracked her fingers with a determined smile.

 _Back with Cristina..._

The redhead once again input some codes and performed the "repair and replace cameras" again, and knowing it would take a while for it to finish, she returned the camera with the other Louds. _"I swear, Leni, if you cockblock me again, I'll make sure you regret it!"_ she thought as she opened a door for them.

As for the girls, they went through the door and saw a window... where they saw Lincoln and Ronnie being positioned in a peculiar way by Leni. From the place they were at, however, the trio were shrouded in the shadows, making it hard to know what was going on.

"What the heck is Leni doing?!" Lisa exclaimed with anger. "Come on, let's find a way to get in that room-!"

"You're not going anywhere."

Suddenly, Carol Pingry-her eyes still glowing green-jumped out of the shadows and leaped straight for the team, only for Lori to come out as well and kick her away with a dive kick. With that done, she landed next to her sisters as Bobby and Clyde came out of the shadows as well.

"Lori?!" Lynn blurted. "What are you doing here?"

"That doesn't matter!" the teenager stated. "Just stay behind me, I'll take care of these guys!"

However, just as she got ready to attack the trio, Carol got up, scanned her surroundings along Clyde and Bobby, then promptly stated, "Only two girls are missing."

"The rocker," Bobby said.

"The jocker," Clyde added.

"Where are they?" Carol growled.

"That's none of your business!" Lori hissed, cracking her knuckles. "Now back away before I'm forced to hurt you!"

Suddenly, the laboratory was filled with eerie, condescending laughter. A laughter that sounded like it came from an old man. Soon enough, the source of the voice came out of the shadows: it was none other than Lord Tetherby.

"I'm afraid, darling, that you and your family will be the ones who you'll be forced to hurt," Tetherby remarked.

"Tetherby?!" the Loud sisters exclaimed in unison.

 _"Agape?!"_ Cristina thought in shock, only to narrow her eyes in annoyance, _"What are you planning to do this time?"_

"You know, I was hoping all of the non-traumatized sisters could be present, but I think you all will be good enough," Tetherby said, narrowing his eyes. "Now, it's time for you to hurt Lincoln, for Cristina's sake, of course."

"Okay, now you're uttering nonsense!" Lori stated. "Cristina can make us change behavior! She can force us to be lesbians! But why in the world would she want us to hurt Lincoln? Up to this point, nothing has affected him in the same way as we've been affected, and even then he's been kept out of harms way!"

 _"Yeah, you tell him, Storge!"_ Cristina thought, smiling in approval.

"Hmph, okay, so perhaps this isn't what Cristina wants. But this is what I want, and I will get it!" Tetherby declared before turning to the trio. "Would you kindly capture these girls?"

Carol, Bobby and Clyde's eyes turned blue as they stated in unison, "Yes, Master Tetherby!"

And so, the trio caught the sisters and restrained them as Tetherby approached... and Cristina turned off the screen. _"I'm bored, let's see if Ronnie and Lincoln are back online,"_ she thought, and once she went to the other screen, _"Yes! It's all back to normal!"_

Lincoln and Ronnie-with Leni hidden in the shadows again-were breathing heavily and holding hands, with Ronnie in particular looking almost ecstatic. "W-We... we did it," Ronnie said, turning to Lincoln. "We actually did it."

The tomboy gave Lincoln a wink, and the duo got up, still holding hands. "And now that we did that, it's time to do what I should have done at first," Lincoln remarked.

The boy got on his knees, reached for his back and took out a box as he spoke,"Ronnie Anne Santiago," he opened the box and revealed a wedding ring inside. "Would you marry me, and spend the rest of our lives together?"

 _"Say yes! Say yes! Say yes!"_ Cristina excitedly thought, clapping in joy.

But Ronnie looked around and remained silent, unable to come up with an answer she would say in this situation. Well, she did know one word to say, but Cristina wouldn't want to hear that.

 _"Come on, Ronnie, just say yes!"_ Cristina thought, her smile turning into a frown.

And then the alarms blared as the place glowed red. Ronnie, Lincoln and Leni looked around to see what was going on, and then Tetherby, Clyde, Bobby and Carol appeared in a platform above the ground, followed by some demented-looking Lisa, Lana, Lynn, Lucy and Lori revealing themselves.

"Wait, what?!" Cristina thought in disbelief. "What's going on?!"

"Uh, Lame-O, aren't those your sisters?" Ronnie asked, backing away with Linc by her side.

"I don't know, but they certainly look like them," Linc answered, backing away as well.

"Kill Ronnie, Save Lincoln," chanted the demented sisters as they took out blade weapons, their smiles growing ear-to-ear as they approached the pair.

Then, after backing away for a moment, Lori ran forward and tried to slash Ronnie apart and snatch Lincoln, only for Leni to come out with a bastard sword and block the blade with her own.

"Nice try, but you'll have to get past me first!" Leni proclaimed before turning to the duo. "Linc, Ronnie, make sure to dodge everything!"

The couple nodded in agreement and started to dodge Lana, Lucy and Lynn's incoming barrage of attacks as Leni and Lori faced off in a one-on-one swordfight. For the most part, Lincoln and Ronnie managed to dodge the attacks, since the sisters seemingly focused solely on attacking Ronnie Anne while leaving Lincoln alone. But then he saw something peculiar: Lisa watching from the background.

 _"What is Lisa planning?"_ Linc thought, narrowing his eyes.

And then Tetherby spoke with Lisa, "My dear Loud, would you kindly make sure to stab one of those two kds, as deep as possible?"

Lisa's eyes glowed blue as her smile grew wider, and then she leaped up in the air and headed straight for Ronnie, laughing like a maniac all the way. Seeing this, alongside the incoming attacks from Lana, Lynn and Lucy, Lincoln could only do one thing.

"Ronnie, look out!"

He pushed the tomboy aside, and an ear-piercing scream echoed in the room as all the sisters turned back to normal and turned to look at the source of the scream. And while they did that, Cristina went wide-eyed and silent as she saw what just happened, too surprised or even horrified to even think of anything to say.

The source was Lincoln, bleeding from his nose and his mouth, with a single knife so deep in his body that the blade came out of the other side. This knife belonged to Lisa Loud, who froze in place.

Once the sisters-and Ronnie-saw that, they all dropped their weapons and immediately went to his aid, while Cristina started to cry and repeatedly say "no" in her mind until it desolved into this:

"No... no... no no no no no no nonononononononononono!"

And as the "no" opera went on, the sisters took out the knives and helped him go to the nearest hospital. Three of the Four Lovers, still under the "would you kindly" control, cried tears as Tetherby laughed. "Now that's some good catharsis for me," he remarked.

Then, having returned to reality, Cristina narrowed her eyes and told to her earpiece, "Would you kindly knock Tetherby out and bring him to "the garden"? It's about time I made good on my promise."

Carol, Bobbie and Clyde's eyes glowed bright green as they turned to Tetherby, who continued to laugh as the camera was cut off. Cristina had been denied satisfaction once more.

 _"Fuck you, Tetherby..."_ she thought.

And then a file for "hospital camera" opened up, which the redhead opened in an instant. What she saw was Ronnie and the sisters surrounding Lincoln, who was currently resting on a bed while his chest was wrapped with bandages. There was also a life support system nearby, though Linc wasn't hooked to it.

 _"Well, that was fast,"_ the redhead thought. _"Please be okay, Lincoln."_

"The doctor said you'll have to stay here for a week in order to fully recover from the knife wound," Leni explained to Lincoln, who shivered a little. "If you get out any earlier, you'll likely won't get to live any longer than a couple of days. So stay here until your injury has recovered, and I'll come to pick you up once I get the chance."

"Do I really have to stay here?" Lincoln asked.

"Either you stay here and get better, or you come home with us and potentially perish," Leni bluntly answered as she got up and crossed her arms. "Those are the only choices we got right now, and I'm pretty sure you know which we're going to pick."

Lincoln exchanged worries looks with Ronnie Anne. "Okay everybody, say goodbye to Lincoln so we can leave," Leni ordered.

"Wait, what?!" the sisters-specially Lori-exclaimed in surprise.

"Lincoln needs to rest, the one thing he won't get as long as we stay with him," Leni explained, giving Lori an annoyed look as she added, "Again, say goodbye to Lincoln so we can leave!"

"Since when you're the one in charge?!" Lori complained.

"Ever since you became my bitch," Leni answered with a smug smile.

Lori blushed, looked around, then promptly told Lincoln "Goodbye, I hope you get better" before stomping her way out of the room. Then came Leni:

"Have a good rest, Lincoln."

Then Lynn:

"Keep going strong, bro, don't let death win this game!"

Then Lucy:

"Even if you don't get better, I'll make sure to guard your grave. But please do get better."

And Lana:

"I promise, if mud has curative properties, I'll bring you some right away."

Lisa was supposed to be next, but she just stood in place and cried as she tried to think of the right words to say. And nothing having time to waste, Leni grabbed and lifted Lisa, who blurted "I'm sorry" as the sisters left the room.

And now, with the two of them alone, Ronnie finally spoke:

"Lincoln, there's something I need to tell you. Something I've wanted to tell you since this whole mess started, but which I haven't been able to say up to this point. Will you hear me out?"

"Go ahead, Ronnie," Lincoln answered with a pained smile.

 _"Yes, Ronnie, please tell him,"_ Cristina thought, leaning closer in hopeful despair. _"This will all have been worth it if you just, tell him, already. Please, do it before anything worse happens. Do it before. Just... tell him."_

"You see, this has been Cristina's plan all along. All the nonsense that came before has been all just to get us together in her own fantasy," Ronnie sternly answered. "I don't know when, or even why, she decided to try to get us together, but here we are. But since we're at the hospital right now, I'm sure you can guess how that wound up."

Cristina stood paralyzed in complete shock as the entirety of the world just... stopped. Fell silent. All she could care about was the fact that Ronnie just spilled the beans of her plan to Lincoln. Granted, it wasn't as bad as simply learning the truth, but to have her most trusted subordinate, her "best friend" just so casually betray her...

"And since Leni destroyed the master bracelet, I presume it's all done for?" Lincoln asked, hoping it really would be the end.

But Ronnie's look said otherwise. "I'm afraid not, Lincoln," she said, causing Cristina to return to reality. "Cristina has another trick up her sleeve. Even though she doesn't even wear sleeves."

Upon hearing that, Cristina clenched and grit her teeth as she seemingly started to cry tears of blood. "Ronnie, don't you dare, don't you freaking dare," she whispered at the laptop, which she grabbed and pulled closer to herself. "You can get away with stalling for time, you can get away, you might get away from spilling the beans, but you won't ever get away with revealing my other plan. So you better keep your damn mouth shut, or else you will pay."

And then Ronnie turned to the camera where the redhead watched the event unfold, with the tomboy flashing a smile. "I will make sure you pay dearly for this!" Cristina threatened, increasing the volume of her voice a bit. "I will bitch you up, you hear me!? I will put you down, punish you with it, and turn you into my personal bitch, if you spill those beans!"

The tomboy flipped the bird to Cristina and turned back to Lincoln. "Okay, so this is Cristina's second plan-"

Cristina's eyes became blood shot as she let out an ear-piercing shriek. One so loud, in fact, that Mrs. Johnson managed to hear it from downstairs.

"I knew she was going to freak out eventually," the woman growled as she got up and headed upstairs. "Cristina, I'm coming! You better be getting ready to sleep for when I get there!"

Back with Cristina, the girl threw her laptop at a wall and then continuously slammed it with some unspecified wrestling moves. Luckily, her laptop proved to be quite the hard thing to break.

"You had one job, Ronnie! One! Fucking! Job!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "Keep quiet about my plans, and date and fuck with Lincoln, then _be_ fucked _by_ Lincoln!"

But she didn't stop at yelling at the laptop, no, that's what a normal enraged shipper would do. Instead, she turned on her earpiece to Ronnie, then continued to yell while the tomboy covered her ears, catching Lincoln's attention.

"W-What's wrong, Ronnie?" Lincoln asked.

"N-Nothing you need to worry about!" Ronnie replied, trying her hardest to stay calm as Cristina blasted insults at her head.

"You piece of shit would have remained unaware of the truth if it wasn't for me! You would've never found out the true depravity of humanity, if it wasn't for me! And now, you fucked up, Ronnie! And not in the sexy way either, you did in the way of the failure!"

And then, Cristina said something that brought a sadistic smirk to her face:

"Or should I say, the way of the Lincoln?!"

Ronnie flinched and frowned before taking out her earpiece and revealing it to Lincoln. The boy wasn't sure what was some surprising: that Ronnie had an earpiece in the first place, or that Cristina's voice was coming out of the other end.

"Oh yes, I just went there, and I'm not stopping there either!" Cristina yelled sounding a bit more unhinged. "I will hunt you, I will find you, and I will turn you into my bitch! I will slap you, hurt you, insult you, and slap you some more until you go on all four, answer to your name, and act like the bitch you truly are!"

Ronnie dropped the earpiece and stepped on it while Lincoln could only watch in confusion.

"Clearly, there are more things I have to tell you," Ronnie told the boy.

Back with Cristina, she put her laptop back on her bed and started to punch it as her freakout reached it's peak. She punched the laptop for every insult she yelled.

"Damn everything related to you, Ronnie Anne! Damn your face! Damn your race! Damn your family! But most of all..."

Mrs. Johnson opened the door just as Cristina send a punch straight for the monitor.

"Damn you!"

Cristina's punch cracked through the laptop, which soon released electricity and electrocuted Cristina. The girl screamed in agony as the lighting went all through her body, only to stop a couple seconds later, with her mother running to her aid as she dropped to her bed, betrayed and shocked.

"Cristina, can you hear me?!" Mrs. Johnson desperately called. "I'll call 911, just hang on for a moment!"

But as the woman left to call the number, Cristina fell unconscious...

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

Lori groaned in exasperation and watched her sisters go upstairs as Leni continued walking to the backyard. Once there, she took a quick look around before she saw a car arrive close to the household.

The car of Mrs. Johnson, to be precise.

She immediately went to the car as Mrs. Johnson came out of it. "Mrs. Johnson, I'm ready to deal with your little troublemaker," Leni said, putting on a friendly facade.

The redheaded woman rubbed her arm nervously...


	34. The Truth

**So, last chapter was quite the shocker, wasn't it? Well, you won't get such a shocker for quite a while, don't worry about that, What you do have to worry about, though, is that I'm taking a holiday break from writing to... Well, enjoy the holidays, and I suggest you do as well.**

 **But first, I'd like to thank everybody who has favorited and followed this story from the beginning. I'm going to be honest, I didn't expect this story to be that well-received, or even this long to be specific. Luckily enough, I managed to realize at least one of my mistakes and shortened the length. Trust me, I was shooting for 60 chapters to make it my longest story ever. Stupid me.**

 **Anyway, thanks everybody so much for following this story, and happy holidays to all of you. With that said and done, onto the chapter!**

* * *

 _Sometime later, at The Loud House..._

Leni walked back and forth the line of her younger sisters, with Lori watching from the couch as she waited for Leni to finally speak up.

"Okay, so as I said before, Lori has become submissive to my will, and so that automatically leaves me in charge unless the situation calls for Lori to be in charge. So, essentially I'm in charge 95% of the time," Leni said, flashing a smug smile at Lori. "Now, thing are going to change with me in charge, and now I'll tell you why."

Leni walked to Lisa's side. "Let's start with the youngest sister, Lisa-"

Once she saw how her younger sister was shivering and could barely hold her tears, though, Leni changed her authoritarian tone for a gentler, motherly one. She crouched down and put her hand on Lisa's hair as she gave her a reassuring smile.

"Actually, we'll talk later, you don't seem to be in a good mood," Leni told the little genius before turinng to Lucy and adding, "Lucy, I'll talk with you too later, for now, take Lisa to her room."

"Y-Yes, Leni," Lucy replied.

The poet and the genius went upstairs as Leni got up and stated, "Okay, let's start again from the youngest," the fashionista walked to the twins and stated, "Lola and Lana."

The mud lover and pageant diva held hands in fear.

"What you're going to do is this: Lana, you can play in the mud, but for the love of god, clean yourself before you return to the house!" Leni ordered at the mud lover, who immediately flinched. "Seriously, if I had a nickle for every time you come here and dirty everything up with your mud, I'd actually be able to provide my own children!"

This earned Leni some horrified looks from Luna, Luan and Lori. "It's a saying, get your mind out of the gutter!" Leni snapped, before adding with honesty. "Seriously, please do so, I've seen people gone mad from putting their mind in such a place."

And then she turned to Lola. "Now let's get back on track, shall we?" she leaned closer to the diva as her smile turned into a wide grin. "You will change forever! From on an, an era is at an end! Because you, Lola Loud, infamous diva of the Loud household, while humble yourself and stop acting like a spoiled diva!"

Suddenly, without warning, Leni's grinning face was replaced by Cristina's by a split second, causing the pageant princess to wince and hit the ground. "Y-Y-Yes! Got it! Anything, but please don't do anything to me!" Lola pleaded, clasping her hands in desperation.

"Don't worry, you will do as I want, and your request will be granted," Leni replied as she got up, then pointed at the staircase. "Now get out of here you two!"

"Yes, Miss Leni!" Lola and Lana answered in unison.

The twins fled in terror the instant they could, with Lola jumping into Lana's arms in the process.

"Moving on," Leni walked to Lynn. "I think it's time for you to be grounded from the ground. What I mean to say, is that you should spend only a select amount of time, and limit the amount of time you can focus on sports."

"What?! But I'm an athlete! A sports girl! An athletic sports girl!" Lynn growled back, completely oblivious to the redundancy. "Sports are my life, I need to focus on them! They're what I like, what I'm passionate about!"

"You have allowed your passion to take over your life, and I intend to fix that!" Leni barked, stomping the ground. "Starting tomorrow, you can only focus on sports for 3 hours and a half a day, and no more! Once your time expires, either study or do something else! And you'll have to study on your own and don't bother Lisa for a lecture or something, she's not feeling well."

"But I academically suck on my own! I'm going to be held back!" Lynn said.

"You should have thought about that before deciding to dedicate all your time to sports!" Leni exchanged looks with Lynn for a bit before heading to Luna and Luan. "I'm sounding like a broken record, so let's go with you too. First of all,"

Leni grabbed Luan's surgical mask. "How long has she had this thing?"

"O-Over a week," Luna nervously answered.

Leni yanked the mask away... and revealed Luan's mouth was perfectly fine. "Show your teeth," Leni ordered, and Luan hesitated. "I said, show, your, teeth!"

After stalling for a while, Luan caved in and opened her mouth, revealing her teeth were... perfectly fine, though her braces were a different story. However, both the braces and some of her teeth fell down shortly afterwards, causing the comedian to cover her mouth and whimper in pain. And though Luna went to her side immediately, Leni was seemingly unfazed by the sight.

"Luan, dear little Luan, you have had quite the bad luck, haven't you?" Leni started with a chuckle. "There's the whole deal with your bad sense of humor, then you're among the first to be forcefully changed by the chips, then you wind up being forced to act like your lover and sister here, who then smacks you with her guitar and who you have to break her heart. Then her virtual version smacks you so hard, you almost end up losing your mouth, and now you lost some teeth and your braces."

This did nothing but earn Leni a look of contempt from the duo.

"I think you both learned an important lesson: You can be controlled, and it's absolutely un-bear-able," Leni finished, chuckling some more before adding, "Get it?"

"Just spit out what you want us to do already, Leni!" Luna snapped. "We've suffered enough, and we're not going to deal with your condescending smugness!"

Leni paused for a moment, then separated the duo, slapped Luna hard enough to leave a handprint in her cheek... then she calmed down and said with a smile, "I was just about to get to that: You, Luna, will stop playing so much loud music. I know we're called the Loud family for a reason, but come on, blasting everybody's ears with your music gets tiring after a while!"

"Alright then, I can deal with that," Luna muttered.

Then Leni turned to Luan, "As for you, Luna will take you to get some braces for your remaining teeth, and once you feel comfortable enough to talk again, you will investigate what is good comedy, good jokes, and good pranks," she sternly stated. "It's time to make people laugh _with_ you, Luan, and not _at_ you."

The prankster nodded and looked away.

"You used to be so nice, Leni," Luna blurted, catching the girl's attention. "What happened? Why did you turn into... this?"

"I learned how to make sure our family stopped tripping over their own feet and start adapting for the better," Leni bitterly replied, giving Luna a furious look. "Besides, after all that's happened to us, did you expect me to stay as the same goody two-shoes idiot you used to know? To be unaffected by current events?"

"... No, I guess I should've seen a change coming," Luna answered, narrowing her eyes. "I honestly didn't think this was the change we would get, though."

And with most of her non-Lori sisters done, Leni walked to Lori and told her, "Monitor everybody and make sure they don't cause much trouble. I have to work on something, I'll be back in time for dinner."

"What could you possibly be working on that would take you until dinner to finish?" Lori asked, crossing her arms.

"How could you possibly talk with Bobby on your phone for so long without running out of minutes?" Leni mockingly replied.

Lori groaned in exasperation and watched her sisters go upstairs as Leni continued walking to the backyard. Once there, she took a quick look around before she saw a car arrive close to the household.

The car of Mrs. Johnson, to be precise.

She immediately went to the car as Mrs. Johnson came out of it. "Mrs. Johnson, I'm ready to deal with your little troublemaker," Leni said, putting on a friendly facade.

The redheaded woman rubbed her arm nervously...

 _Meanwhile, at the hospital Lincoln was in..._

The boy slept peacefully in his bed, an arm resting on his belly as he slowly opened his eyes and took a look around. The sky turned black as the night approached, so the lights were soon turned on, forcing the boy to cover his eyes. However, once he actually took a look around, he saw something that sent a shiver up his spine.

On the bed next to him, an unconscious Cristina-now cleaned and with a bandage wrapped around her head-slept with her bandaged hand exposed.

Lincoln immediately grabbed a nearby bell and rang it as loudly as he could. Surprisingly enough, this didn't wake up the redhead in the process. Though that was probably for the best.

It wasn't long before a nurse arrived and checked his tension, "What's wrong? Do you need something?" she asked while focusing on the boy's tension.

"Yeah! I need to know why that..." Lincoln turned to Cristina, then pointed at her while looking at the nurse. "That girl is resting close to me!"

"A lady by the name of "Mrs. Johnson" came earlier with the girl unconscious, covered in ashes, and with an incredibly damaged hand. We fixed her up, stabilized her and she was put in here due to Mrs. Johnson making a reservation for this room," the nurse explained as she saw Lincoln's tension turn back to normal. "It seems your body is managing to lower your tension to a manageable level. Almost as if it was used to having high tension."

"Yeah, I'll act as if that makes sense," Linc replied, rolling his eyes. "Do I really have to share a room with her?"

"Would you rather stay here alone for a whole week?" the nurse responded, getting up and folding her arms.

Linc frowned and glanced at Cristina. "... No, but-"

"But nothing, you will share this room with that girl," the nurse stated. "I'll turn off the lights to let you two rest. Ring the bell again if you need anything."

With that said, Lincoln turned around and gave the sleeping Cristina a worried look before the lights turned off, and he decided to try and take a snooze. He slowly closed his eyes, making sure to see if Cristina was close to waking up before fully closing them...

Then, he opened them, realizing if he closed his eyes for even a second, Cristina would vanish and... do something to him, presumably. Luckily, though, she was still on her bed.

 _"Great, she's still there,"_ Lincoln thought as he turned to the ceiling and closed his eyes again. _"Looks like I'll be able to sleep tonight."_

That's when he realized: he took his eyes off Cristina. And by the time he tried to look again, the girl was no longer in her bed, and was in fact on top of him, giving an unblinking stare with her large, bloodshot, soulless eyes. And to make matters worse, the girl slowly leaned closer until she was face-to-face with Lincoln... and then she gave him a kiss. On the lps.

"Wait, what?" Lincoln blurted as Cristina gave him bedroom eyes.

"Your stabbing was an unfortunate accident," the redhead explained as she reached for her back. "I never thought it would happen, but here we are now. Stuck in a room, all alone. Perfect."

And then she took out a helmet from her back. Where did she get it, is something Lincoln couldn't figure out. Though it was pretty clear the helmet looked different from the VR helmets that caused this whole mess in the first place.

"I believe I've been keeping secrets from you for far too long," Cristina stated as she put the helmet on Lincoln, who desperately tried to shake her off. "It's time you learn what you've probably been wondering for so long. Aren't you happy?"

Cristina turned the helmet on, and as Lincoln entered a trance, she uttered:

"You will learn the truth."

Suddenly, Lincoln found himself in the school's yard, back during the events of the video contest fiasco. He looked around and saw Cristina looking with surprise at Lincoln's video, while the kids surrounding her laughed at it. Seeing this, the boy touched his torso and noticed he was no longer stabbed. In fact, he was perfectly healthy again.

"W-What is the meaning of this?" Lincoln said, though nobody seemed to hear him.

After the events that Lincoln remembered happened, the kids left and Cristina gave Lincoln a confused look before leaving as well. It then cut to the cafeteria, even thought Lincoln doesn't remember having gone there on that day. But anyway, what mattered is that he saw Cristina sitting on a table with Ronnie Anne by her side.

"What's wrong, Christie?" Ronnie asked, placing a hand in Cristina's shoulder. "You know you can tell me anything, we're best friends, after all."

 _"Ronnie and Cristina know each other?"_ Linc thought as he hid behind a trashcan.

"It's a video Lincoln posted, he apparently published it for the video contest stuff," Cristina answered, blushing and twiddling her fingers. "And, there's something in there that surprised me. He put my picture on a vampire thing, and started making out with it while saying how much he loved me..."

"Ha! Classic Lame-O, kissing inanimate objects instead of an actual girl!" Ronnie scoffed. "I pity the girl who kisses him after that video."

Little did Ronnie know, that _she_ would be the next girl to kiss Lincoln. But anyway, Cristina spoke next:

"I don't know if I should be worried about it."

"Nah, don't worry about it!" Ronnie replied, gently patting Cristina's back. "It's just a video! There are billion more on the internet, people will probably forget about it tomorrow."

And with that, Ronnie left and Cristina looked at the ground, still worried about the whole ordeal. And then it all changed again to show the school hallway, though this one was surprisingly empty, and going by a nearby calendar it was definitely not a weekend. Suddenly, Lincoln saw Cristina running around, and decided to chase after her.

"Dang it, why did I leave behind my backpack again?!" Cristina said as she looked around for her classroom. "It's the third time it's happened this month!"

And then, once she found and took her backpack, she came across a weird sight: a bunch of girls laughing while holding some drawings. So she approached them as Lincoln watched from nearby.

"Um, what are you still doing here?" Cristina inquired, catching the girl's attention. "You do know school finished a half hour ago, right?"

"Oh my, you're the girl, aren't you?" asked one of the girls. "You're the girl Lincoln is madly in love with?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that," the redhead replied, blushing and scratching the back of her head. "I was in his video, and he did seem interested in me, but-"

"Oh, you simply have to see the wonderful art people have made of you and him!" said another girl before handing the redhead some pictures. "Here, have a look!"

Cristina took a look at the pictures as Lincoln went to her side and saw them too, though the redhead didn't notice him. The pictures, while only consisting of Cristina and Lincoln hugging, kissing or doing tame couple stuff, still managed to worry the duo a bit. "People have been making this?" Cristina asked, turning to the girls.

"Oh yeah, lots of people make things like this!" one of the girls answered. "Granted, it's not nearly as numerous as Lincoln and his sisters, but it's definitely large enough to be impressive!"

"Wait, what?" Cristina and Lincoln asked in unison.

Then, without warning, the scenery changed to show a room Lincoln couldn't recognize. What he did recognize, however, was Cristina entering the room, and then sneaking her way to a laptop, which she took with her as she walked to the bed, with Lincoln getting on the way.

"Cristina, enough!" he shouted. "I'm not moving until you tell me what's going on!"

But the girl continued walking... and eventually phased through him.

"What the heck?!" Linc exclaimed.

The boy turned around and saw Cristina jump onto the bed, where she put the laptop down and turned it on. The boy soon got onto the bed and sat next to Cristina, who entered the universal porn site known as the internet as Lincoln tried to catch her attention, without success. Then, when Cristina took out a paper with "Loud Booru" written over it and wrote it on the search bar, Lincoln grew worried.

"W-Wait, what are you doing?" Linc asked Cristina, who didn't hear him. "Where did you get this "loud booru" information from?"

But Cristina just continued to focus on the search bar, which wound up landing her in the titular booru. From what she could see, the resulting images were fairly innocent: funny comics, some pictures about the Louds, and the occasional Loud acting like a yandere towards Lincoln.

"Huh, this is nowhere near as bad as I." and then she went to the upper search bar. "Wait, what are you-"

She wrote down "smut" and, taking a deep breath, pressed the "search" button. What came next was that some rather lewd pictures came up: Naked Louds, intercourse, you name it, there was probably a picture about it among the ones seen. However, while Lincoln notably recoiled from the pictures, Cristina froze in place, looking completely horrified.

"People... have been making this? Since when? Why?" she uttered, shivering. "Why is Lincoln put through... this? Why would anybody ever find this... what word did they use to describe it? Appealing? Attractive?"

Soon enough, Crisina shook herself back to reality and reached for her pockets. "I guess I should focus on the research," she remarked, taking out a list.

Among the stuff added on this list, which Lincoln saw, were scat, gore, incest, among other taboo subjects. "Wait, you're going to search for that?!" Linc exclaimed, though of course, this didn't bother Cristina.

And just as Cristina continued her "research" the helmet turned off and Cristina took it out, returning Lincoln to the hospital, to his injured body, and most importantly, to the real Cristina. "And there you go," she said, saving the helmet on her back, apparently. "You have seen the truth."

"W-Wait, you forced my sisters to turn into lesbians, forced them to change, to be incestful, all because you watched some porn?!" Lincoln asked as Cristina got off him and went back to her bed. "I-I don't get it, how would that lead to all of this?!"

"You're just expected to understand what happened to me that lead to this event, understanding anything else is completely optional," Cristina answered as she tucked herself. "Now stop screaming like a pregnant cat and go to sleep."

"You expect me to just go sleep after what you showed me?!" Linc shouted.

The redhead, however, just closed her eyes and fell asleep instantly. So Lincoln tried to go to sleep, and the first thing he dreamed about was he and his sisters watching their home movie after they had dealt with a blackout and he had missed Spectre Hunter. Once he saw where he was, he decided to go along with it and smiled as he hugged his nearest sisters, who hugged back.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"W-Wait, what are you doing?!" Lincoln asked, only to stop on his tracks as his chest wound acted up. "Stupid knife injury!"

And then another doctor came in and made Lincoln lay back on the bed. "You have to stay down, Mr. Loud," the doctor told the boy. "If you move too much, your wound could potentially get

"But I have to do something about what they're doing to her!" Lincoln replied, grabbing his belly and turning back to Cristina. "Not only does she seem to be in pain, but angering her is one of the worst mistakes anybody could do!"


	35. Sister Opinion

**So I figured that I would at the very least give you guys something to read while you wait for the real deal to continue, and since things have become extremely dark, I think returning to my roots and making something funny would help. But I wound up making this instead.**

 **So, with nothing else to say, let's get onto the chapter!**

* * *

At the hospital, Lincoln nervously twiddled his fingers while Cristina simply looked at the ceiling with a soulless look. "Hey Lincoln?" the redhead suddenly asked.

"Y-Yes, Cristina?" the boy replied, trying to refrain from looking at the redhead.

"I just realized, I've never really talked to you about your sisters before, so why not do it now?" Cristina argued before turning to the boy. "What do you think about your older sisters?"

The boy hesitated for a moment, after all this was Cristina she was talking with, but for now, it didn't seem like she was going to be any trouble. So, he eventually answered: "Well, Lori is kinda cool, if a bit bossy, Leni has become bossier than ever, Luna is pretty cool, and Luan and Lynn-"

Cristina immediately turned to Lincoln and frowned. "What about Luan and Lynn?"

"Well, they kinda fit into the same category: they can be kind of bully-ish, but they're ultimately loving girls," the boy answered. "So, they're loving bullies, of a sort."

"Sounds like a certain girl, doesn't it?" Cristina remarked, fondly remembering Ronnie before asking, "Anyway, what do you think of your younger sisters?"

"Lucy's creepy, Lana and Lola are kinda the same but Lana is nicer, Lisa has grown definitely, and Lily is just... There," the boy hastily answered. "That question's almost a no brainer."

Then, Cristina chuckled. "That's so funny."

"Why is it funny?" Lincoln inquired.

After spending some seconds in silence, Cristina gave Lincoln a sultry look and answere, "'The fact that we agree on something."

The boy felt a chill go up his spine as Cristina giggled.


	36. Loud Hospital

**I guess you could say that I'm back from my break, and right before New Year's as well. But don't worry, you beautiful people, I won't just bombard you with chapters tomorrow. That's next week's deal!**

 **Nah just kidding. Anyway, nothing else I could say would justify keeping you waiting, so let's move on to the chapter!**

* * *

 _Midnight, back at The Loud House..._

Leni walked back and forth in the kitchen, having just received the worst news possible from Mrs. Johnson. And it's not like she had an easy time forgetting, either, for she remembered exactly what went down:

 _"Listen, Leni, I had to take Cristina to the hospital after she received some injuries she... admittedly did to herself," Mrs. Johnson explained, twiddling her fingers and looking away before adding, "She was put in a room with... a white-haired boy, and they told me to come tomorrow in order to check up on her."_

 _"Well, that's sad to know, I guess," Leni replied, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. "But you do sound worried about Cristina being put on the same room as that white-haired boy you're talking about-"_

 _Suddenly, Leni remembered what she said: White-haired boy._

 _"W-Wait, y-you don't mean..." Leni stuttered, and Mrs. Johnson couldn't help but frown in further worry. "No, you can't be serious!"_

 _"I'm afraid Cristina is resting in the same room as Lincoln," the woman confessed._

And once the memory played for another time, the girl groaned as silently as possible to not wake anybody up, and grabbed her head in exasperation.

 _"First I'm constantly ignored by Lisa, then I have to follow a mysterious voice whose methods have yet to work out in my favor, and now my poor little brother has to share a room with the psychopath who brought us so much pain and mysery!"_ she thought, getting ready to slam her fist down the table. _"Can't one thing go right in this house?!"_

But then, just as she got ready to hit the table, she stopped, remembering what time it was and how most of her sisters would be fast asleep by now. Keyword being almost all of them.

"Leni?"

The teenager got up, turned around and saw Lori at the door. Though, she didn't look so much angry as she was exhausted and clearly grumpy. "It's freaking midnight, what are you doing up so late?" she asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"I... I needed to take a midnight snack, that's all," Leni answered before suddenly blurting, "Would you kindly go back to bed and go to sleep?"

Nothing happened to Lori. Her eyes didn't even change, she was simply unaffected by the words, apparently.

"Not until you tell me what's bothering you," Lori stated.

Upon seeing the trick fail, Leni flinched and started to back away, not wanting to reveal what she knew but having no excuse to spat back at Lori. Speaking of her, the grumpy blonde started to walk towards Leni, forcing mer

"Come on, Leni, woman up and tell me what's going!" Lori barked as quietly as possible. "After all, you were the one who said she was going to be the one in charge from now on. You should have no problem telling me what's bothering you!"

Leni eventually hit a wall and responded, "If I told you what I learned, you'd go the Lola way and tell everybody in the morning, or perhaps you simply wouldn't tell anybody, but that's a risk I can't take."

Lori narrowed her eyes. "I've done everything I can to try and change this house for the better, and among those changes is that you will no longer hold any secrets," Leni added, putting on a defiant glare. "So, either I tell you about it and you tell everybody else, or I keep it to myself. And I'm sure you know which one I'm picking."

After exchanging looks for a moment, Lori chuckled, "You haven't even started your first day as a leader and you're already failing as a leader," she said, making Leni wince. "Desperately pulling off the "it's for the greater good" nonsense? Cracking under pressure so easily? Do you think that's what someone in charge would do?"

Leni narrowed her eyes and frowned, trying her hardest to look intimidating. "You're not someone capable of being a leader, sweet little Leni," Lori stated with a smug smile, though with a hint of flattery. "You're more like... a cinnamon roll."

"I'm a sweet type of bread?" Leni asked in offended confusion.

"There's the Leni everybody knows and cares about," Lori brushed Leni's hair and gave her an amused grin. "Listen, how about you ditch Leader Leni and go back to the little dumb Leni everybody's more used to?"

Those simple words were all Leni needed to remember why she was doing all of this: She had been "little dumb Leni" for so long, Lori was legitimately asking her to remain like that. She didn't even suggest that she change a thing or two, no, she just wanted little dumb, easily-manipulable, mostly ignored Leni to return.

"No," Leni stated, narrowing her eyes.

"What?" Lori asked, sounding shocked.

Suddenly, Leni punched Lori in the face hard enough to send her straight into a wall and give her a black eye. Lori grabbed said black eye as she growled like an enraged dog.

"That is the problem with this household, you don't want to change for the better!" Leni shouted, no longer caring about the time it was. "To you, and maybe everybody else, I might just be an idiot you can take advantage of, or make fun of whenever you feel bored, but I can be more than that! I am more than that, and if you won't change for the better, I will force you to change!"

"Classic Leni, talking about stupid nonsense not even she understands," Lori said, regaining her composure a couple seconds later. "Alright, dumb little Leni, stop acting like a jerk and go back to normal!"

"Dumb little Leni is no longer here," Leni stated, her voice gaining a hostile tone.

Leni walked to Lori, grabbed her by the shirt and pulled the phone-obsessed teenager to her face. As Lori gave Leni a defiant glare, and got an amused sneer in return, the atmosphere around the room changed as the sisters arrived. Once they went inside, they immediately felt a chill go up their spines as Leni turned to look at them with an annoyed look.

"L-Leni?" Lola blurted, hugging Lana in fear.

The blonde released Lori, pushed her away and walked to her sisters while forcing a toothy smile. This did nothing but further disturb the girls.

"That's right, I'm just Leni," the teenager chirped, her smile growing wider. "Not little dumb Leni, not Leni the Dumb, just, Leni. And if you wish for Leni to remain in a good, you'll make sure to call Leni by her name, Leni, and not any stupid nicknames you may have had for her."

And then Leni crouched and leaned closer and closer to Lola's face. "Because I know you've used nicknames in the past. Insulting nicknames. Offensive nicknames. Mean nicknames. You've used every type of nicknames, and among the worst ones belong to me. Am I right, Lola? I am, aren't I?"

"Leni's getting mean!" Lola whined to her sister, shedding tears.

"Okay, Leni, we get it," Luna stated, grabbing and pushing Leni back a bit. "We came down here to see what was going on, but it seems like it's between you and Lori. So, just try to be quiet, we're trying to sleep."

"Got it!" Leni chirped.

The sisters left the room as Leni flashed a malicious smile and look at Lori, who flinched with worry.

"Leni is here to stay, remember that," Leni stated, narrowing her eyes.

 _Sometime later, at the hospital..._

Lincoln was suddenly awoken when some bright, purple lights flashed in his face, followed by an ear-piercing screech. He quickly looked around and saw Cristina being electrocuted by a random doctor and nurse.

"W-Wait, what are you doing?!" Lincoln asked, only to stop on his tracks as his chest wound acted up. "Stupid knife injury!"

And then another doctor came in and made Lincoln lay back on the bed. "You have to stay down, Mr. Loud," the doctor told the boy. "If you move too much, your wound could potentially get

"But I have to do something about what they're doing to her!" Lincoln replied, grabbing his belly and turning back to Cristina. "Not only does she seem to be in pain, but angering her is one of the worst mistakes anybody could do!"

"Listen, Mr. Loud, let the professionals handle the medical issues, okay?" the doctor replied, right before the doctors stopped electrocuting Cristina. "There, her organs have been stabilized, and she'll be fine for a while. So please relax, okay?"

"Stabilization?" Linc repeated with worry.

The doctor just glanced at the redhead, then at Lincoln, and finally left the room with the other doctor and nurse. Once that was done, Lincoln tried to calm down... while the electrocuted Cristina watched him with a terrified, pained stare.

"You did... nothing..." Cristina muttered, sounding both betrayed and disappointed. "You stood there... and did... nothing..."

"What did you want me to do? I was stabbed, and if I move too much, the injury could get worse, the doctor said that just now," Lincoln answered, narrowing his eyes and turning away before adding, "Besides, after all you've done, you should be happy I even thought helping you in the slightest."

However, Cristina soon got up-though with some notable difficulty-as she hissed, "You did nothing!" and then she leaped straight for Lincoln's bed. "You did the same thing "they" did, you did nothing!"

And then, without warning, Cristina started kicking Lincoln's knife injury, causing the boy to scream in agony. "You are just like them! Uncaring, apathetic, willing to let even innocent people suffer as long as you don't wind up hurt in the process!" Cristina hissed before getting on top of Lincoln and strangling him.

"Look who's talking!" Lincoln scoffed, putting on a smug smile as he shed tears.

Cristina missed the saying and just continued strangling the boy until the doctors from before returned with a familiar female nurse, who grabbed Cristina, put her back on her bed and applied some knock-out gas on the redhead, who immediately realized who this woman was.

It was Carol Pingrey.

And as she fell unconscious, the remaining docters went to check on Lincoln and stabilized his stab wound before it got any worse.

"Don't worry, everything's okay now," told the first doctor to Lincoln. "We managed to find nurse Carol downstairs, she simply arrived late. As usual."

The doctor beamed Carol an angry look, while the woman just rolled her eyes in response. "Now that you mention that, where is the doctor I was assigned?" Lincoln inquired.

"He's busy with something on another room, but he should be available later," the second doctor explained. "His name is Dr. Archer, an expert when it comes to closing wounds and fixing up internal damage."

"Good to know," Lincoln said. "Can you guys stay here with me until then? I don't feel safe with... her, around."

"Don't worry, kid, Carol won't do anything to you," the first doctor reassured.

Lincoln was quick to correct the old man. "I'm talking about her patient."

"Oh... well, I don't know what to say other than, we can't stay here, we have some business to attend to," the second doctor answered. "But Carol will stay here, so you have nothing to worry about."

 _"That's what you say,"_ Lincoln thought as the doctors left and Carol finished knocking out Cristina.

With that done, Carol sat down and gave Cristina an annoyed look, while the redhead twitched from the electrocution. "Okay, Cristina, I sure hope you remember me," Carol told the redhead. "You know, the woman who you screwed over for your clustermess of a plan?"

"Wait, you used to work for Cristina?" Lincoln asked, his interest instantly caught.

Cristina flashed Carol a look that basically told her to stay quiet and not reveal anything about her involvement. Unfortunately, Carol wasn't exactly working for the redhead at the moment now, was she? So she walked to Lincoln, sat next to him and gave Cristina a malicious sneer.

"Well, that's an interesting story, actually," Carol remarked.

 _Back at the Loud House..._

The Loud sisters gathered at the kitchen and ate their breakfast... well, most of them did. Leni, instead, drank her coffee nearby, watching her sisters intently. _"I have to act natural, if any of these annoying little pests start thinking I'm acting weird, my whole plan is going to be derailed!"_ Leni thought, taking a sip from her coffee.

"Leni sure is acting weird, isn't she?" Lynn blurted, with the rest of the sisters nodding in agreement. "Do you think she's hiding something?"

"She's turning into a discount Lori, so she's bound to keep something hidden from us," Lucy argued.

Lori got ready to argue back... and then shrugged and nodded in agreement. "Yo, Leni, if you have something to tell us, just say it, okay?" Luna told Leni without even looking at the girl, causing her to spit out her drink.

"Did you learn nothing from when you asked me to go on a date?" Luan scolded, but Luna just shrugged in response.

"Come to think of it, is there anything you're hiding from us, Leni?" Lori inquired, getting up and walking towards the teen girl. "I mean, you do seem like you're trying to act natural, which somebody only does if they're hiding something."

"What, do you think I'm going to do the same mistakes you did?" Leni scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Again, you're trying to turn into a discount Lori," Lucy pointed out. "What else did you expect?"

"L-Listen, I know you may think that I'm hiding stuff, and I probably am, but you have to trust me," Leni said, shivering a little. "After all, if you could trust somebody like Lori, why can't you trust me?"

The sisters narrowed their eyes, obviously not falling for Leni's explanation. After changing from a nice-natured girl to what basically amounted to a dumber Lori, they simply couldn't trust her word that easily anymore.

"Leni, I'm afraid there's one big problem with your explanation," Lori slammed her fist on the table. "I don't speak bullshit!"

 _"Dang it! That's the only other language I know!"_ Leni thought with worry.

"Now come on, tell us what you're hiding!" Lori ordered, with the other sisters nodding in agreement. "What's going on at the hospital that's bothering you so much?"

The teenager took a look around, then promptly caved in when she saw she had no other choice:

"Lincoln is sharing a room with Cristina as we speak."

 _Speaking of Lincoln and Cristina..._

The kids continued to rest in their beds, with Carol getting ready to electrocute Cristina again. While Lincoln rested calmly, however, Cristina looked like she was ready to murder Carol at any moment, with the look growing even more murderous as Carol electrocuted her. And as that happened, his assigned doctor, Dr. Archer, entered the room... with a large, red handprint on his left cheek.

"Greetings, Lincoln," Dr. Archer greeted.

"Oh hey, a doctor," Linc remarked before pointing at Cristina, who was constantly kicking Carol's chin. "Can you tell me what is Carol doing to Cristina?"

"You know the girl?" Dr. Archer asked in surprise.

Linc answered in a matter-of-fact tone. "We're classmates. And no, we're not romantically interested in each other,"

"Your romantic life is of no concern of mine," Lincoln definitely agreed. "Anyway, your friend here has to be constantly stabilized with electricity, otherwise she might end up facing grave danger."

This caught Lincoln's attention in an instant. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure how to tell you this in terms normal people would understand, so in short, the electrocution caused her organs to gain an erratic beating rhytm," Dr. Archer explained, and though Lincoln didn't understood a word he said, he was at least able to tell it was anything but good. "Until her body can re-adjust to the normal beating speed, electric shocks are required in order to keep her current beating stable while the body adjusts."

"What would happen if she wasn't stabilized?" Linc inquired, almost sounding worried for the redhead.

The doctor didn't respond, instead, he went to Cristina's side of the bed and helped the other doctor electrocute her. As this happened, Lincoln winced as Cristina was electrocuted, followed by her hitting the bed, twitching spastically. Once that was done, the redhead slowly turned to Lincoln, shedding tears and trying her hardest to hold back crying.

"Is this... necessary?" she weakly asked, sounding utterly terrified of the possibility.

"Either they do that to you and stabilize you, or something even worse befalls you," Lincoln answered in a deadpan tone. "And before you ask, I'd probably care a bit more about it if only you hadn't played with my sisters' emotions and hurt me and my family physically and mentally."

"But Lincoln, that is necessary," Cristina replied, still sounding terrified. "But these shocks... I don't think they're necessary."

"Who cares about what you think? You need to be shocked or else something bad will happen, end of story," Lincoln stated. "So shut your trap and deal with it!"

Dr. Archer narrowed his eyes and Cristina flashed a glare as Lincoln crossed his arms... and Carol applauded. "Very nicely said, boy," the woman said with a chuckle. "Now, how about we change the mood and turn on the TV?"

Cristina turned back to Carol and smiled as she joyously nodded. So Carol took the control remote, turned on the TV, and left it at the Blarney Rangers show. The redhead was pleased to see the show, Dr. Archer and Carol both struggled with it and Lincoln... was confused.

"You like this kind of TV?" Lincoln asked Cristina. "This show is typically for very young kids, about 4 to 6 year olds, you know?"

Cristina just flashed a murderous scowl at Lincoln, who immediately shut up and went back to watching the show with Cristina, who also returned to her happy mood.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

Lori argued with Dr. Archer about Lincoln, and by arguing, she was basically grabbing him by the neck and pulling him closer to her as she barked at him. "What do you mean we can't take Lincoln back home with us?!" she shouted right at Dr. Archer's face. "He would be far safer there than here with that crimson lunatic!"

"The hospital policy prevents any patients from leaving the facility until they have fully recovered," the doctor replied. "If you take him back with you right now, his condition could potentially worsen."


	37. Road to the Hospital

_Meanwhile, at the roads..._

Most of the older sisters rode straight for the hospital in the vanzilla, with Luan, Luna on the back seat while Lori and Leni were in the front seats: Lori steering the wheel, while Leni crossed her arms and looked at the window like a bratty angsty teen. Luan, Luna and were basically just... there, watching the duo arguing.

"Of all the nonsense you could have kept secret, did you really think Lincoln sharing a room with a psychopath was something you needed to hide?!" Lori snapped at Leni, who winced and felt a chill go up her spine. "I know you're an idiot in general, but come on Leni, this is ridiculous!"

But then, the fashionista retorted, "Oh, so when I hide something like that from you, then you get upset, but when you hide even more secrets to everybody else, we just put that under the rug and never talk about it again?"

The sisters immediately turned to look at Lori, who shouted "Shut up!" and continued to drive like nothing just happened.

 _Back at the Loud House..._

Lana and Lola, the latter holding the former's hand as she nervously looked around, walked to their bedroom as Lana spoke, "I'm seriously starting to get sick of all this mess. Not in that I'm literally getting sick, but my patience is growing thin, you know what I'm saying?"

Lola's silence was all Lana needed. Not that she got to hear it for long, since the ambience was soon replaced by sobbing. So the twins headed for the source of the sobbing, and found Lisa crying in Lucy's arms, with the poet brushing her head in an attempt to comfort her.

"Lisa... what's wrong?" Lana inquired as she and her twin approached the scientis. "Why are you crying?"

And then, Lisa turned to her sisters-basically shedding rivers of tears from her eyes-and meekly answered, "I stabbed Lincoln. He's in the hospital because of me-"

"You did what!?" Lola exclaimed, her abrasive personality returning as she stomped forward and scared the little genius. "How?! Where?! Why?! When?!" and then she grabbed Lisa by the neck of her shirt, pulled her up close, and hissed, "Why?!"

Lana promptly separated the duo... and Lola's bracelet fell down. "Hey, look, the bracelet fell down!" Lana remarked, pointing at the fallen bracelet, which Lola promptly broke. "I completely forgot we were being controlled by these friendship bracelets."

"Who gives a flying feather about the bracelets right now?!" Lola shouted, pointing at the smart brunette. "Lisa stabbed Lincoln! He was able to survive all this madness without a single scratch on him, and then she came along and hurt him!"

Lisa continued to cry in Lucy's arms while Lana explained, "Lola, the truth is, she along with me, Lucy, Lynn and Lori were all brainwashed into attacking Lincoln and Ronnie Anne with knives. So really, any of us could have wound up stabbing Lincoln and sending him to the hospital. Tell me, would you have reacted the same way if I had been the one to stab Lincoln?"

Lola's meek personality returned, and she looked away and twiddled her fingers while nervously answering, "I... guess not..."

"Right, and Lisa here is clearly mortified about what happened," Lana added. "Don't you think that, seeing as everybody now has to deal with 3 traumatized sisters, we should at least try to help Lisa get some comfort?"

"Perhaps, but I don't think we should leave our guard down just yet," Lola answered, giving Lisa a glare. "Seeing how much Leni changed thanks to this whole situation, who knows how it changed Lisa beyond turning her into a crybaby."

Lana promptly slapped Lola. "Those kind of words are not something I'm going to allow, little missy," the tomboy stated. "Now apologize to Lisa for scaring her."

The pageant diva went forward, took a deep breath, then said, "I'm sorry."

"It's... okay," Lisa replied.

"Alright, so now we need to try and comfort Lisa," Lana said, pulling Lola back to her before she tried anything else. "Hey Lucy, what do you suggest we do?"

"I believe that leaving Lisa alone will not help her at all," Lucy answered, brushing Lisa's hair. "Instead, we should try to comfort her until she finds herself comfortable enough to let us dive deeper into her psyche. Only then, will we be able to deal with her problem once and for all."

"Hey, gotherella, if you knew how to deal with such an issue before, why didn't you tried to help me and Lana cope with our own issues?" Lola asked, arms folded.

"Because back then, getting close to Lana would be suicidal since you were close to her, and I was brainwashed alongside some of our sisters," Lucy answered, before flashing a smile. "Besides, I don't like you two."

"Hey!" the twins whined in unison.

 _Okay, let's go back to the hospital..._

Cristina and Lincoln continued to watch the Blarney Rangers show while Carol and Dr. Archer talked about something. And from the looks of it-with them looking pretty serious overall-it was either related to Cristina or something even worse.

"You were very good at the Blarney Rangers show at Dairyland Amoosement Park."

Lincoln turned around and saw Cristina beaming a smile. And not a creepy ear-to-ear or terrified or mournful smile either, the redhead looked legitimately happy as she reached for her back, took out a pen and paper, and promptly threw it to Lincoln. "Could I have your autograph?" she requested.

Seeing as Happy Cristina was the _only_ Cristina Lincoln wanted to be with at the moment, he wrote his name in the paper, threw it back alongside the pen and watched as Cristina saved the paper with a smile.

"Cristina, if I can ask you something, why do you think all of this is necessary?" the boy inquired, earning a confused look from the redhead. "I mean, surely there must be another way to deal with the people who made... those things on the internet."

The redhead frowned, took a deep breath, and then spoke, "They won't understand in any other way. If they don't receive a piece of their own medicine, they will continue to write and draw the things I've seen. So much pain, so much agony, so much... defilement, I'm actually kinda glad you never wound up seeing any of the things I did."

"What did you see?" Lincoln asked.

After pausing for a while, Cristina answered: "Pain. Suffering. You being stuck in the middle of unfavorable situations, your sisters turning into psychopaths in love with you, forbidden unions... you name it, I saw it. And that's when I realized: nobody has done anything about it. People just allowed this to happen. They let this mysterious strangers torture us, manipulate us... rape us. They let all of that stuff happen."

"You do realize that's just fiction, right?" Lincoln pointed out.

Suddenly, Cristina leaped for Lincoln's bed and got on top of him, her once genuine smile having turned into a menacing, crazied one. "And how do you know it's not fiction based on a true story?" she inquired, leaning closer to Lincoln's face. "Leni could be smarter than she is, Luna could know more than she lets on, Luan would kill anybody to be with you, Lucy could have a crush on you, maybe all of your sisters want to steal. Your. Virginity."

"D-Don't be ridiculous!" Lincoln snapped, but Cristina didn't even flinch. "My sisters would never do something like that!"

"They'll find a way, you know? I've seen countless ways they can take away your innocence, countless ways they can break you," the redhead leaned even closer, almost to the point she and Lincoln were about to kiss. "Mouth gagged with panties, limbs bounded to a bed, you watching helplessly as the sisters force you to enjoy what's happening."

And then... she started to cry, her voice breaking as her tone... faltered. "And no matter how much you plead... no matter how much you ask them to stop... they take it away. Your virginity. Your personal space. Your dignity." and then, she hugged Lincoln and whispered to his ear, "To them, you are no longer their brother. You are just a fuckboy. A man to be used as a living sex toy, and they're more than willing to destroy everything you love, even each other, just to get you all to themselves."

Lincoln himself started to cry, but mostly out of fear. After all, Cristina was an unpredictable girl, and seeing her go from happy, to dangerous, to heartbroken, it made him wonder how she would react next. And unfortunately, he got his answer soon enough: she kissed him in the lips, then chuckled as the two separated.

"But I can fix it! I can fix everything!" Cristina exclaimed. "Your sisters, your dignity, everything! All I need to do... is get rid of them."

Lincoln winced. "I learned from those pictures the kind of things they could do to you, and I figured they should get their just desserts. Lynn the molester! Lana the molested! Lola the traumatized! Lori the submissive! Lucy the lunatic! And so many more! I changed them to show you how they could act, how they will act, if nothing is done. But I won't do the same mistake "they" did. I will do something."

Then, she grabbed Lincoln's neck.

"I will kill them," Cristina revealed, licking her lips. "I will break them mentally, then physically, until they're nothing more than corpses. And before you ask, of corpse I'm going to go for all of them. Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa. I will spare nobody. I will make sure they suffer before they make you suffer. I'll make sure they die disgraceful, pathetic deaths! And if that fails..."

Suddenly, she started strangling Lincoln.

"I can always kill you instead."

Even more suddenly, Carol slapped Cristina in the back of her head hard enough to knock her out, followed by throwing her back to her bed as Lincoln rubbed his neck and caught his breath, looking firmly at the unconscious redhead all the while.

"Don't worry, whatever Cristina told you, she won't be able to do it to you," Dr. Archer reassured the boy. "As long as nothing happens, we'll stay at your side at all times."

Suddenly, the megaphone in the celing spoke. "Attention all doctors and nurses."

"You just had to talk, didn't you?" Carol said.

"It's time to begin Rounds. Please perform your Rounds immediately," said the megaphone. "Repeat, it's time to begin Rounds. Please perform your Rounds immediately."

"Wait, you're going to leave us alone?!" Lincoln exclaimed.

"Don't worry, as long as we do it immediately, we should be back soon," Carol said as she put her hand in Lincoln's shoulder. "In the meantime, just stay strong, and make sure to keep your eyes on Cristina."

The doctor and nurse promptly left the room and Lincoln went on to stare at Cristina, hoping she would remain unconscious until Archer and Carol return. Then the lights turned off... and when they turned back on, Cristina opened her eyes and stared at Lincoln. Then, the lights turned off again... and when they turned back on...

Cristina was nowhere to be seen.

And then, Lincoln's sisters barged into the room and caught Lincoln's attention. The boy almost jumped startled too, but his knife injury reminded him not to do that. He did clutch his stomach, though, and swallowed his fear as Lori got up and approached him. Though, perhaps she approached him a bit too close.

"Lincoln, are you okay?!" Lori exclaimed. "Did that bitch Cristina hurt you?!"

"No, she didn't do anything to me... at first, that is," Linc answered. "After a while, she revealed her motives... and what she would do to us... while strangling me. At the very least, though, the good news is-"

"Cristina has escaped!" Carol exclaimed as she barged into the room.

Everybody turned to Carol as Lincoln slapped himself and shouted, "Of course, I just had to open my mouth, didn't I?"

And just as Carol walked to Lincoln, she noticed Lori and gave her a surprised look, with the teenager flinching and backing away in return. This, in turn, caught the sisters' attention, as they glanced between their sister and the nurse as the duo exchanged looks.

"What do you mean Cristina escaped?" Leni asked, catching the nurse's attention.

"It's exactly as I said: while everybody was trying to stop you from just barging into the hospital like it was nothing, Cristina stole some electrical equipment, jumped out the window and ran away as fast as she could," Carol explained, crossing her arms."Who knows where she could be right now?"

"Then what are you waiting for?! Chase after her!" Lori snapped, pointing at the window. "You can't just stay here and let that psychopath go away!"

"First of all, it would be best if you refrained from talking as if you had some authority over me," Carol replied, giving Lori a smack in the head. "Second of all, even if I could chase after Cristina, I have absolutely no idea where she's going. And besides, I no longer work for her, and I prefer to stay as far away from that girl as possible."

"You no longer work for her?" Luan repeated. "What do you mean?"

Carol looked surprised at the question, though her look changed from surprised to amused as she turned to Lori, who shivered as the woman approached her. "You told them nothing, did you, Junior?" the nurse remarked, brushing Lori's hair. "I'm surprised you managed to keep your trap shut for this long."

"Now that you mention it, maybe it's time you tell everybody the truth, Lori," Leni stated, crossing her arms. "We're all ears."

The teenager looked around and saw not only her sisters-and Lincoln-looking at her in wonder, or in Lincoln's case anger, but Carol wrapped her arm around her and tightly held her, preventing escape. So, seeing she had no way to get out of the mess, she caved in:

"I work for Cristina as one of her four henchmen, the four lovers."

 _Meanwhile, with Cristina..._

The girl finished setting up her new outfit, which was basically a red-and-black version of her blouse-skirt and shoes combo, wrapped with a large amount of shocking equipment. In particular, she had a pair of joy buzzers in each hand, though these were different from the joy buzzers that pranksters commonly used. And she finished just in time too.

She started to get shortness of breath as she felt her body feeling internally... different. But most importantly, she was starting to feel incredibly weak.

Then she slammed her arms into the ground, activating the joy buzzers and electrocuting herself in process. That was seemingly all it took for her body to return to functioning like normal, at least for now. As she caught her breath desperately, she gave a look at the joy buzzers.

Her method of keeping herself stable wouldn't always work, but it was the only thing she could do at the moment. And so, with her body stabilized at the moment, she decided to focus on the next most important thing at the moment. She got up, cracked her knuckles, then walked back to Royal Woods.

She and Ronnie Anne had some... unfinished business, to take care of. And she couldn't wait to get some sweet payback agains the tomboy.

 _Back at the hospital..._

Lori argued with Dr. Archer about Lincoln, and by arguing, she was basically grabbing him by the neck and pulling him closer to her as she barked at him. "What do you mean we can't take Lincoln back home with us?!" she shouted right at Dr. Archer's face. "He would be far safer there than here with that crimson lunatic!"

"The hospital policy prevents any patients from leaving the facility until they have fully recovered," the doctor replied. "If you take him back with you right now, his condition could potentially worsen."

"Oh geez, we never took that into account," Luna remarked.

"You, shut up, and help me convince this guy to release Lincoln!" Lori ordered.

But the other sisters refused to listen. "Junior, your sisters now know your involvement with Cristina's plan," Carol stated, making the teenager freeze in place. "I don't think acting like your aggressive self won't help with anything. Besides, there's still one thing we have left to do: we need to tell something to Cristina's mother."

"Mrs. Johnson?" Leni blurted. "Well, have you called her? When is she coming?"

And then Mrs. Johnson entered the room... and stopped right on her tracks when she saw what was currently happening. "Am I interrupting something?" she inquired, glancing at the people.

Then, as Dr. Archer was released by Lori, Carol walked to the redhead and said, "Okay, so I'll admit I should have informed you about your daughter's condition earlier, but-"

"Just tell us what's wrong with her already, please," Lincoln said, arms folded.

Carol beamed a glare at Linc before promptly explaining: "Cristina was suffering an episode of emotional distress shortly before being electrocuted. The emotional distress, combined with the intense shock from the electrocution, caused Cristina's internal organs to speed up until they had a messed up rhytm. Now, unless she's regularly shocked, her organs will start to slow down before speeding up again, then slowing down before repeating the process."

"That... doesn't make any sense," Lisa remarked.

"It's the best thing my boss could tell me about her condition, every other doctor that's tried to give her an analysis has been left utter baffled as to what's wrong with her," Carol replied, crossing her arms. "Anyway, the short story is that Cristina's organs don't work the same way as they did before or even in a way that would let her live for long, and she has to be shocked in order to prevent her organs from slowly short circuit."

"Short circuit?" Mrs. Johnson asked.

Carol promptly explained:

"As in, the more her organs start to act differently without being corrected, the more likely she'll wind up dying in the process."

 **-Next Chapter preview-**

"I'm no longer part of your mess of a plan, Cristina!" Ronnie spat. "Go ahead! Just replace me like you replaced the other Lovers, it's not like they mean a damn thing to you anyway!"

Once Cristina returned to Ronnie, however, she wasn't mad, or even angry. In fact, the best way to describe her would be disappointed.

"You're mostly right, Ronnie. I didn't care about your brother, Carol, and most definitely not Tetherby. But I actually had a soft spot for you. I needed you to get together with Lincoln, so you would save him from his sisters and anybody else. But alas, we both know how that went down. And now here we are, with you by my heels, still defying my righteous will."

Then she grabbed Ronnie's chin and made her look at her.

"But I will fix that. I will fix you."


	38. Anger

As Cristina continued to walk back to Royal Woods, a voice seemingly spoke to her.

 _"What can I do now? Ronnie has betrayed me. Lincoln has betrayed me. The Four Lovers were more useless than I expected. The only good thing to come out of this mess is that Tetherby is now part of my garden."_

Then, she smiled.

 _"Well, at the very least, I can pay a visit to my dear friend. I wonder if she missed me? I certainly haven't missed her. Why would anybody miss a dirty backstabber, after all?"_

The irony of the statement was lost to the redhead.

 _At the Santiago Household..._

Ronnie watched some television, which was currently showing a pair of friends-one brunette and the other a redhead-fighting and beating each other to a pulp. Why was she watching such a show, since it undoubtly brought bad memories of her and Cristina's deal, was beyond her. But luckily, her attention was caught by something else.

She turned around after hearing a knock, and saw Cristina standing outside, head tilted to a side, eyes practically bulging from her head, and sporting what could be best described as a demented smile.

"Hello, Ronnie Anne," Cristina greeted in a friendly, and almost casual, tone.

The tomboy just closed the curtains and walked away, only to find Cristina looking at her through the next window. "Do you remember me?" the redhead inquired. "I'm Cristina, I'm your best friend."

The tomboy closed the curtains again as Cristina added, "I have a question for you."

Then, without warning, Cristina crashed her arm through the window and grabbed Ronnie by the neck of her shirt. "Do you remember," she slowly pulled her forward as her calm tone suddenly turned into a loud, frenetic one, "What you did to me!?"

She pulled Ronnie Anne through the window, then threw her right at a tree, breathing heavily all the while. Then, as Ronnie got up and dusted herself, Cristina took a deep breath before slowly walking towards the tomboy, sporting a murderous, bloodshot look. The tomboy, however, wasn't all that fazed by the sight.

"Cristina, it's so nice to see your ugly mug again," Ronnie said as she dusted herself.

"Am I detecting sarcasm in your speech?" the redhead asked with a smug grin.

"You don't need to sense what's plainly in front of you," Ronnie and Cristina then exchanged glares once the redhead was close enough. "Now tell me, what the heck are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital?"

"Oh right, I definitely used to be in the hospital," Cristina answered, narrowing her eyes. "But I wasn't along, you know? I had a roommate."

"I pity the poor bastard who wound up sharing a room with you," Ronnie scoffed.

"I'm not sure Lincoln would've liked to be called a bastard," the redhead chuckled.

The moment Cristina revealed that, Ronnie grabbed her by the neck, pinned her against the three and held her tight as she said, "You and Lincoln shared a bedroom?! What did you do to him!?"

But Cristina wasn't fazed. In fact, she wasn't even afraid. She simply rolled her eyes-her smug smile remaining in place-before answering in a matter-of-fact tone, "All I did was reveal the truth to him."

 _"The truth?!"_ Ronnie thought.

And then the tomboy felt a sharp pain in her crotch. The pain itself came from the kick in the groin Cristina gave her, forcing the Hispanic girl to release the redhead and grab her crotch, upon which Cristina kicked her hard enough to send her flying into a wall. Then, as the Hispanic girl slid down and hit the ground, Cristina walked to her, grabbed and held her arms and started to kick her groin repeatedly.

"Don't worry, though, I made sure to save him from seeing the very worst of the truth," Cristina remarked. "Including your dirty, backstabbing, traitor face!"

Suddenly, Ronnie returned the favor-or at least tried to-and swung her kick. While she missed Cristina's crotch, she at least hit her legs and caused her to lose balance, making the redhead release Ronnie. The tomboy took the chance to roll away and catch her breath.

"I'm no longer part of your mess of a plan, Cristina!" Ronnie spat. "Go ahead! Just replace me like you replaced the other Lovers, it's not like they mean a damn thing to you anyway!"

Once Cristina returned to Ronnie, however, she wasn't mad, or even angry. In fact, the best way to describe her would be disappointed.

"You're mostly right, Ronnie. I didn't care about your brother, Carol, and most definitely not Tetherby. But I actually had a soft spot for you. I needed you to get together with Lincoln, so you would save him from his sisters and anybody else. But alas, we both know how that went down. And now here we are, with you by my heels, still defying my righteous will."

Then she grabbed Ronnie's chin and made her look at her.

"But I will fix that. I will fix you."

Finally, just to further mess with Ronnie, Cristina leaned closer and gave her a kiss in the lips. The redhead in particular played with Ronnie's tongue using her own, all while giving the angry, crying tomboy bedroom eyes. By the time Cristina and Ronnie's kiss finished, Ronnie looked like she was ready to murder Cristina at any time.

Good thing the redhead knocked her out soon afterwards.

"Now, how about we go to somewhere else?" Cristina said as she grabbed the unconscious girl and dragged her on the ground. "Somewhere you will see the error of your ways..."

 _Back at the Loud House, with Lucy and Lisa..._

The poet and the little genius sat on the latter's bed, with Lisa looking around with worry while Lucy held a couple of pictures.

"Okay Lisa, I asked Lola and Lana to refrain from joining this therapy session until you felt a bit more comfortable," Lucy explained. "Now, we'll start with something simple. I'll show you pictures with black blots of ink in them, and you must tell me what you think you see in them."

"That... sounds fine, actually," Lisa remarked. "Let's give it a shot."

Lucy nodded and showed Lisa a picture with about 3 large, slender blots of ink.

"I see... a group of people. And they're shrouded in the shadows," Lisa said before the blots turned into large versions of herself, sporting ear-to-ear smirks and bloodshot eyes. "A-And they look like me! They're giggling! And-"

The goth quickly threw away the picture and went to the next one. "Okay, let's go to the next picture," the poet said hastily.

The picture was basically a bunch of black polka dots. "A bunch of blood stains in the floor," Lisa said, trying to hold back the desire to cry. "And they come from Lincoln, who is crying in pain nearby-"

"Something tells me this has affected you more than I previously thought," Lucy remarked as she threw away the picture. "What do you say we try a different approach?"

"What do you mean?" Lisa inquired.

Literally seconds later, Lisa and Lucy were on the floor, with a pen and paper in front of Lisa. "I want you to try and write something," Lucy explained as Lisa grabbed the pen. "Try to not focus on either Lincoln, or the stabbing, or anything like that. Focus on what you like. Something like... science."

Lisa smiled, immediately getting an idea of what to write. But the instant she tried to write anything at all, images of a stabbed Lincoln flashed in her mind. Not only that, she also got images of Lincoln in the hospital, and... Cristina? The third one wasn't really anything specific, but going by the redhead's grin, it wasn't anything good. But the genius pressed on and started writing.

She started to shed tears as she wrote her note, with the images flashing faster as she continued writing. That is, until Lucy grabbed her hand and stopped her.

"I think that's enough," the goth stated.

The letter she wrote was basically repeated chantings of "Hurt Lincoln, served Cristina" with the letters getting bigger and bigger until they just... dropped into the bottom of the paper. And then Lynn literally kicked the door open.

"Hello everybody!" the athlete cheerfully greeted.

Her excitement was cut shot when she saw Lucy holding Lisa, who was shivering in fear. "Did I come in at a bad moment?" Lynn asked.

"No, I was just trying to help Lisa deal with her trauma," Lucy answered, though her tone made it difficult to tell whether she was being sarcastic or not. "What do you need, Lynn?"

Lynn twiddled her figners. "Well, two things: I was wondering if you would like to see what we'll do about our relationship-"

"Right now, there are far more urgent matters than our potential relationship," Lucy answered, her tone having a subtle hint of anger in it.

"And that's when the second thing comes in!" Lynn cheerfully added. "I have a way of helping Lisa deal with her trauma!"

 _Later, at the backyard..._

Lynn presented the duo with a punching bag modeled after Cristina, with Lucy and Lisa looking at it with confusion, at least in Lisa's case.

"I don't get it," Lisa said.

"Cristina is the main reason all of this madness has happened," Lynn explained as she walked to Lisa's side. "So, all you have to do is punch it to your heart's content!"

"Yeah, I get that, what I don't get is why you think such a physical approach will help someone who's more mental?" Lisa answered.

"Hey, it doesn't hurt to try," Lynn shrugged.

So, not really having anything else to do, Lisa walked forward to the redhead-shaped punching bag and cracked her knuckles... only to hurt her hands in the process. Then she took a deep breath, and looked at the bag while she charged up her punch. And once she released it... the bag barely moved.

"Come on, Lisa! You must have some built up anger for Cristina!" Lynn barked, making the little genius wince in surprise. "Use that to your advantage! Remember everything she's done up to this point!"

And then, memories flashed in Lisa's head. The first, of course, being the girl fleeing from her while mocking her.

"Cristina..." she muttered, forming a fist.

"Yes, that's right!" Lynn shouted, lifting her fist while Lucy started to get worried. "Channel all your rage in one punch!"

"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Lucy remarked.

"Lucy, she has to vent," Lynn replied. "Don't mind whatever Lucy says, just remember: beat the stuffing out of that punching bag!"

More memories flashed: Cristina spitting at her face, her sisters acting weird because of the chips, and more memories that made the genius clench her teeth and growl the redhead's name as she charged up her punch once again. She then swung it in a spiral manner until it resembled a spinning wheel, then promptly punched the punching bag.

How strong was the resulting punch? The punching bag was not only sent flying, but it was basically snapped in two, with the upper half exploding and making it rain stuffing on top of Lisa, who immediately turned back to normal post-punch. Lynn was amazed, but Lucy's worry had clearly grown worse.

"Good job, Lisa!" Lynn exclaimed as she ran and hugged the smart brunette. "Now remember to do that to the real deal and your trauma will be over! The catharsis should be enough to deal with it!"

The little genius seemingly missed how nonsensical that statement was, since she lifted her arm with Lynn in victory. All while Lucy watched with worry.

 _"This won't end well..."_ Lucy thought.

And then Lisa jumped off Lynn's grasp and went to punch the tree... only to hurt her hand. Lucy's thought said everything:

"Yep, definitely won't end well."

 _Back with the sisters..._

Lori drove down the road, with the sisters on the back seat trying their hardest to ignore the teenager as she ranted on about the whole hospital fiasco. Leni, however, just looked out the window and watched the scenery somberly, due to the sisters' failure to get Lincoln out of the hospital.

Basically, despite doing everything they could to get him out, the doctors and nurses refused to let the sisters take the boy back home. In fact, the faculty had to kick them just to get rid of them.

"I just can't believe it!" Lori exclaimed as her rant went on. "All they needed to do was let us take our brother back home, that's it! They could've provided us with some life support system if they were so worried about Lincoln's condition worsening, but no! They literally kick us out instead!"

"Lori, shut up," Leni ordered. "You're not making this any better."

After flinching at the statement, Lori soon regained her composure and continued to drive silently.

 _Back with Lincoln..._

Carol and Dr. Archer, now working together as a team, helped Lincoln stabilize himself as he hyperventilated. And why wouldn't he panic? His sisters not only came up out of nowhere, but Cristina escaped and he had no idea of where she had gone to. Luckily, however, it seems that whatever the duo did was working.

"He's stabilizing," Dr. Archer said. "But we need to be careful. If something this stressful happens again, he might have a heart attack. Or worse."

"You know, he and I actually know each other better," Carol remarked. "Maybe if he had some alone time with someone he knows, it would help him relax."

Archer wasn't exactly sold on the idea, but he couldn't do anything for Lincoln right now. So he left the room and gave Carol and Lincoln some time alone. "Now, Lincoln, how do you feel?" Caol asked, brushing Lincoln's hair. "Don't worry, you're with somebody you can trust."

"Can I? Lori is working for Cristina, you used to work for her too, heck, for all I know, even Leni could be in cahoots with Cristina as well," the guy answered, looking away. "The more and more time goes on, the less people I find that I can trust."

"Well, I'm not working for Cristina now, so you can definitely trust me," the nurse answered. "Come on, if you need to talk to someone, take the chance to tell me what's on your mind."

After thinking about it for a moment, Lincoln eventually caved in and asked Carol a couple questions: "Do you think Cristina will pay for what she has done? Will my family ever manage to turn back to normal, or move on from all this madness?"

The nurse was taken aback by the questions, though she quickly regained her composure. "Don't worry, either by my hand, or one of your sister's, or even your own hands, Cristina will pay for everything," was her first answer. "And though your family might never be the same after all of this, you'll manage to recover, and move on with your lives."

And then, Lincoln extended his arms towards Carol, clearly trying to request a hug. "I'm sorry, Lincoln, but I'm not allowed to get physical with the patients, hugs included," Carol sadly explained. "Plus, that would probably just worsen your knife wound."

The boy promptly lowered his hands, then smiled and blushed as Carol kissed his forehead and continued to caress his hair, giving him a reassuring smile all the while.

For the first time in a long while, Lincoln actually felt safe and sound...

 _Back with Lynn, Lisa and Lucy..._

Lucy cooked something for dinner while Lynn and Lisa spent some time together at the couch. The reason why she was cooking, besides the remaining older sisters not being back home yet and Lynn knowing jack about cooking, the parents were mysteriously absent. It's almost as if... they had been taken away...

 _"So this is how mom usually starts the day..."_ Lucy thought before gaining a smile, _"Mom, I admire you for lasting so long with this."_

And as she continued to cook, Lynn and Lisa watched some TV. More specifically, they were watching Blarney Rangers with Lana and Lola. Currently, the episode had a brown Blarney Ranger-looking surprisingly similar to Lisa-fighting against a red Psycho Blarney Ranger-who looked similar to Cristina-in a fierce battle.

"Go, Blarney Ranger Brown!" Lana exclaimed, raising her fist.

"Don't give up!" Lola shouted.

"I don't get it, Brown is definitely weaker than Psycho Red, there's no way she's going to win," Lisa remarked, actually sounding like her smart self for once. "So why do Lola and Lana even bother rooting for her?"

"Because Psycho Red has been... a pretty terrible person," Lynn answered hesitantly. "Let's just say she tried to force several Blarneys together for her own amusement, and forced them to change into generic, bland cookie-cutter characters."

No doubt that reminded Lisa of a certain redhead. But then she got an idea, if Blarney Brown could fight a losing battle without losing immediately, maybe she could eventually manage to turn the tables around. And if she can do that, maybe Lisa herself could do that against Cristina. After all, the red rat had escaped for far too long, and it was time somebody fought her head on.

So Lisa got off Lynn's arms and went upstairs. "Hey, where are you going?" Lynn asked.

"I have to go do something! I'll be back soon!" Lisa answered.

Lynn simply took the little girl's word for it. After all, despite being traumatized and essentially changed by everything that's happened, Lisa was still Lisa, and she was easily the most trustworthy of the Louds behind Lori.

So, what did Lisa do once she reached her room? Escape through the window and run to look for Cristina, of course!

"Cristina, here I come!" Lisa whispered with determination.

 _Speaking of Cristina..._

The redhead watched patiently as Ronnie Anne slowly woke up, only to find herself and Cristina in the middle of underneath the warehouse again, with the giant monitor displaying blue static.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," Cristina greeted with a mocking tone. "Did you sleep well? Can I bring you something?"

Ronnie was quick to spit right at Cristina's face, "Yeah! Bring me something sharp so I can shove it up your eye and-"

Suddenly, the redhead took out a red cloth and wrapped it around Ronnie's mouth, with the tomboy complaining all the while. "Oh my, what a dirty mouth you got there, if only I had some soap to clean it with," Cristina remarked before tightening the cloth. "But I guess we'll have to use something far worse."

Ronnie became silent once she heard that, and her worry only grew bigger as Cristina went to a nearby table, and grabbed a helmet. A VR helmet, one that looked really similar to the helmets used in the VR sim date game the Louds did.

"Now, you will see the things I prevented you from seeing," Cristina said as Ronnie tried to break free from her restraints, with no success. "That's right, you'll be forced to live the same scenario for a week: You will meet Lincoln. He won't love you. He'll be taken away by somebody else. What happens next? I don't wanna ruin the surprise.

The tomboy tried even harder as Cristina walked to her before slowly putting on the helmet on her head.

"Don't worry, people say time flies when you're having fun."

Then, as she turned on the helmet, the redhead finished with a malicious grin.

"And I'm definitely going to have fun watching you being tortured!"

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

Cristina spoke with somebody on the phone while watching some Blarney Rangers in action. She was currently seeing the rangers, with their bracelets still in their arms, facing off against the person with the master bracelet, which was shrouded in the shadows.

"Come on, Blarney Rangers!" Blarney Red ordered while pointing at a door. "We must get to the garden of Captain Avast!"

And as she ate her popcorn, the Blarney Rangers went through the door, and found themselves in the middle of a garden filled with human heads, which were slowly being converted into vegetables.


	39. Lisa Vs Cristina

_In the middle of a pitch black office._

Cristina spoke with somebody on the phone while watching some Blarney Rangers in action. She was currently seeing the rangers, with their bracelets still in their arms, facing off against the person with the master bracelet, which was shrouded in the shadows.

"Come on, Blarney Rangers!" Blarney Red ordered while pointing at a door. "We must get to the garden of Captain Avast!"

And as she ate her popcorn, the Blarney Rangers went through the door, and found themselves in the middle of a garden filled with human heads, which were slowly being converted into vegetables.

"Wow, I definitely didn't see that coming," Cristina said, sounding slightly disappointed. "No, it's not with you, Clyde, I'm watching some TV right now. Anyway, how's Tetherby doing in the garden?"

"Well, he's been put in his... "chair" and the... "pesticide" is about to take effect," Clyde answered from the other end of the call. "After that... can I leave, Cristina? If you're going to put my skills to use, at least do it on something I won't regret. Like watching over the Louds, 'cause I got something interesting on Lisa."

After eating some more popcorn, Cristina said, "I'm all ears."

"Apparently she's looking for you, and she wants to... fight, or something?" Clyde answered. "Whatever she wants to do, she primarily wants to deal with you personally."

The redhead put down her popcorn and ordered, "Tell me more, what is this interesting thing you have on her?"

"For some reason, it seems that she's somehow grown determined to kick your butt and make you pay for what you've done," the boy explained while Cristina narrowed her eyes, seemingly understanding what he didn't. "I don't have the slightest idea of how she came to this conclusion, but it definitely seems like she's going to try and deal with your personally."

"And it took her this long to decide..." the redhead remarked with notable disappointment. "Keep an eye on the rest of the sisters, I'll make sure to deal with Lisa personally."

"I'm not really sure if you got the right idea, but then again, I'd rather do anything else than be stuck watching Tetherby..." Clyde responded. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but good luck, Cristina. Ugh, I feel so dirty saying that."

With that said and done, the redhead hung the phone and folded her arms as she looked at the ceiling in contemplation. "I never thought the day would come that Lisa Loud would take matters to her own hands-" she said.

And then her shock/electric equipment went off and electrocuted her, reorganizing her organs once more. Once she caught her breath, she finished with:

"As I was saying, she took matters to her own hands, but failed to consider her priorities..." and then she looked at herself in a mirror. "But I can't fight her like this... I need to use something else..."

 _Back at the Loud House..._

Lynn, Lola and Lana continued to watch TV when Lori, Leni, Luna and Luan opened the door and went inside. "We're back, everybody!" Lori shouted before closing the door. "No, we couldn't literally bring Lincoln back with us. The hospital staff refused to let us take him back home!"

And then, something caught Lori's eyes. "Where the heck is Lisa?"

"She said she was going upstairs to write something," Lynn explained, putting her arms behind her head. "Don't worry, mother Lucy and father Lynn managed to help her get through... some of her trauma, and she seems to be feeling fine!"

"Speaking of mother and father, where are mom and dad?" Lori asked, fruitlessly looking around. "I don't think we've seen them since the amoosement park incident. Did you look for them?"

"We were kinda busy, Lori," Lynn said. "You know, what with having to babysit our remaining sisters while you were at the hospital."

"Actually, Lola and I went to their room to see if they were just sleeping, but they weren't there," Lana blurted, raising her arm. "Do you think they're on vacation or something?"

"It's been _days_ since we've last seen them, and the only vacation we had that lasted days was the aloha beach resort fiasco," Lori stated. "And besides, after all that's happened to this family, you'd think they would at least try to help us deal with all the nonsense that's happened. I mean, I know they can be neglectful, but don't you think it's a bit suspicious that they've disappeared since the dairyland deal?"

And with that said, the girls all exchanged worried looks before Lucy came in, holding a large pot filled with sphagetti and meatballs, and shouted "food's ready!" as cheerfully as emo-tionally possible. Then she earned surprised looks from her siblings.

"Am I interrupting something?" Lucy asked, tilting her head.

"Yeah, and you're also acting weirder than usual," Luna answered, walking to her younger sister. "Since when do you know how to cook?"

"I don't, but there's a cooking book that taught me the steps on how to make food," Lucy answered, before revealing said book. "It's titled "Basic Cooking for Idiots."

Everybody immediately turned to Leni, who didn't look pleased at the looks at all. "I know what you're all thinking, and if I didn't knew any better, I would say that you're being so racist right now," Leni stated, forming a pair of fists.

 _Meanwhile, with Lisa..._

The little genius decided to take a break to catch her breath at the park. She currently sat on a bench, breathing heavily as she relaxed to continue her search for Cristina later.

"Okay, Lisa, you're on a decent road to finding Cristina. This time, you musn't stop until you find her!" she told to herself, gaining a look of determination. "She not only brainwashed my sisters, but she's emotionally, and physically, hurt Lincoln in the worst way possible! Cristina has to pay for what she's done to Lincoln!... Oh, and our sisters too."

Luckily, however, she managed to spot a girl who looked similar to Cristina in the distance, but she shouldn't jump to conclusion, that was Lincoln's job after all. So she got off and looked a bit closer...

Yep, it was Cristina alright. Although, alongside the "body armor" made of electric equipment she took, she was also wearing a red and black stripped version of her normal outfit.

"Cristina!" Lisa yelled, catching the redhead's attention as she walked to her. "It's about time we settle this down once and for all!"

After a short pause, Cristina raised an eyebrow and asked, "Who are you?"

Lisa was highly offended. "I'm the younger sister of Lincoln! We met before when you sneaked into my house and put those chips in the VR helmets!" she spat, giving the redhead the pointer finger.

"Oh right, Heloise, wasn't it?" Cristina asked with a smirk, scratching her head as she tried to remember the name. "No wait, it's something less stupid. How about Lily? Now wait, that's the name of your baby sister, isn't it? Then again, you're a cry _baby_ , so there's not much difference-"

Lisa clenched her teeth. "My name is-"

"Loki? No, that's a male name. Lola? No, that's the more tolerable, if obnoxious, pageant diva of your sister. I know, Libby! Wait, that has five letters, and all your names are strictly four letters, right?" Cristina continued to guess, no doubt bothering Lisa more and more. It almost seemed as if she was doing it on purpose. "I swear I have at the top of my tongue, but I just can't seem to remember it... I know! Loli!"

"I'm Lisa!" the little genius exclaimed, sick and tired of Cristina's nonsense. "And I've been looking for you in order to get some payback for all that you've done to Lincoln and my family! Your days of hurting us are over!"

Cristina simply chuckled to herself, obviously in mockery. "Actually, they're far from over," the redhead stated, before flashing a glare at Lisa. "Specially concerning you."

The little genius flinched, but she quickly regained her composure and gave the brat with red hair a defiant glare. Not that this did anything to intimidate Cristina. In fact, it looked like it _annoyed_ her more than anything.

"Do you honestly think you can do anything against me, Lilo?" she asked, getting the little genius to narrow her eyes. "Listen, your other siblings may have had a chance against me, but you won't even manage to scratch me. You wanna know why, little punk?"

Then the redhead pointed at her head. "This is the only thing you got going for yourself. Your siblings may have things that can balance their weaknesses, heck even Lincoln has versatility, but brainpower is literally all you have. And if you make the big mistake of fighting me..."

Cristina flashed a malicious smirk with bulging bloodshot eyes. "I'll crush your head with my bare hands!"

And then Lisa punched her hard enough to send her a couple feet away. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but I'm smart enough to dodge them!" Lisa scoffed.

Cristina almost immediately turned to Lisa with a smug smile and cracked her knuckles, seemingly having suffered no damage from the attack. Then, she ran to her and threw a barrage of punches, which Lisa managred to dodge, though with some slight difficulty. Then, once she saw an opening, she swept her feet under Cristina and made her lose balance before punching her in the stomach, sending the girl off to the pond.

However, the redhead soon walked out of the body of water, shook her body dry and then ran back at Lisa before unleashing another pair of attacks, though this time she attacked with her legs and not her arms. Lisa still managed to dodge most of the kicks, with a couple of them managing to hit her in the gut and face.

Just as Cristina threw another kick, Lisa grabbed it, then tried to throw Cristina to a tree... only for the girl to be heavier than she thought. That, or Lisa was weaker than she believed. So the redhead swung her leg up, sending Lisa up in the air before kicking her as she fell down, sending her towards the tree and making it snap in half.

"Can't you see that this is a hopeless battle, Lola?" Cristina scoffed, crossing her arms. "We both know you can't beat me, no matter how hard you-"

And then Lisa came out of nowhere, slashed a splinter at Cristina's face and pinned her to the ground as the girl grabbed her bleeding cheek and looked at the blood. She just... looked at it as Lisa grabbed her arms and put a foot on her back.

"How does it feel now, Cristina?!" Lisa scoffed, gripening her hold of the redhead's arms. "How does it feel to know you're essentially being restrained by the Loud you've ignored the most!"

"Don't..." Cristina muttered.

The redhead flashed one of her eyes at Lisa, which was bulging and... glowing red?

"You dare..."

Then, the ground shook, with electricity coming out of Cristina's body as her and Lisa's hair frizzled out. By this point, Lisa realized she probably should get off the enraged redhead.

"Touch me, you...!"

Finally, Lisa leaped off Cristina and tried to flip away, only to be sent flying as Cristina seemingly floated on the sky and unleashed a powerful, explosive wave of energy that flashed red, green and white, with the girl shouting "Nerd!" at the top of her lungs as lighting bolts came out of the wave and struck several buildings.

Once Lisa hit a wall and slid to the ground, she got up and asked "How did you do that?!" in disbelief as Cristina's wave finished and the redhead flashed a murderous glare at her direction. "Uh oh," was all Lisa could say before Cristina rushed to her.

 _Back at the Loud House..._

Everybody ate their lunch/dinner with Lucy, Lynn and the twins, although Leni wasn't so much eating as she was firmly looking at the staircase leading upstairs while trying to eat her food at the same time. Needless to say, she failed to do that quite often.

"Leni, you do know it would be easier to eat if you were focusing on your food?" Lori remarked, glancing at the teenager.

"Sorry, It's just that I can't help but feel something's not right with Lisa," Leni said before getting up. "I'll be back, I'm going upstairs."

So the fashionista went upstairs unopposed, and once she entered Lisa and Lily's bedroom, she bolted back downstairs-stumbling and falling down the stairs in the process-before shouting:

"Lisa's gone!"

This caught her sisters' attention, who were all notably horrified by the implication. "What do you mean Lisa's gone?" Lori asked, going straight to Leni. "Are you sure you didn't just miss her or-"

"I checked every little corner in Lisa's bedroom, from her experiments, to her bed, and she was nowhere to be found!" Leni explained.

And then she got an idea. "The window was open, though..."

Everybody immediately turned to Lynn and the twins, with Luna, Luan, Leni and Lori all throwing glares at the athlete.

"Lynn, what did you and Lucy do with Lisa before she went upstairs?" Lori asked, sounding absolutely-though subtly-livid. "I can't help but get the feeling you have something to do with this."

"Well, I taught her how to concentrate her anger in order to be able to dish out against Cristina," Lynn nervously answered.

The glares Lynn got from her older sisters only intensified. It was clear the athlete had messed up big time.

"We watched some Blarney Rangers, an episode where Blarney Brown fought Psycho Blarney Red," she continued, growing meek as she revealed, "And was eventually defeated by Psycho Red, who beat her to an inch of her life."

 _Back with Cristina and Lisa..._

"No, Cristina-Dono, yamete!"

Lisa spoke that in desperation as Cristina held her by the neck of her sweater and flashed a malicious smirk. As for how Lisa looked, several of her teeth were broken, She then threw held Lisa by her left arm and punched her repeatedly with her free arm before kneeing her in the groin, followed by throwing her in the air and then kicking her straight to a fountain.

The redhead slowly walked to Lisa as the genius rolled out of the rubble. Battered, bleeding, crying. And worst of all, she couldn't even move, for the pain of the groinbusting was too strong. So all she could do is held her crotch in pain as Cristina reached her and stopped to flash a malicious smirk.

"We both knew it would come to this, and yet you tried to beat me," the redhead sneered as she put her foot on top of Lisa's head. "You knew you couldn't win, yet you tried. What I don't understand, is why would you try to do something you knew you couldn't do on your own, and not something you could actually do by yourself."

"What are you talking about?" Lisa asked.

Cristina laughed before slightly pressing Lisa's head, causing her to scream in pain. "Didn't Leni speak to you about your failure to use your brainpower the right way?" the redhead said with a hint of disgust in her tone. "Didn't she show you that you were doing things the wrong way? Didn't you learn anything from her?"

When Lisa failed to respond, Cristina kicked her away, and just as she got ready to run after her, Lori and Leni came out of nowhere and the latter kicked her in the gut, sending her flying into the former, who promptly punched her straight into a tree. Then, as she slid to the ground, Leni went to Lisa and lifted her.

"Leni, take Lisa back to the house and make sure she gets medical treatment!" Lori barked.

"No need to tell me twice!" Leni responded.

With the fashionista gone, Lori watched as Cristina got up and cracked several of her bones as she stretched. She then clapped and electrocuted herself, returning her organs back to normal for a while.

"Well, that was certainly a rude interruption on your part," the redhead said, cracking her knuckles next. "I was in the middle of kicking her butt!"

"Listen, Cristina, whatever made you two fight, there's no need to do it anymore," Lori stated. "You already made it clear Lisa couldn't even beat you in her dreams, you don't have to beat her to an inch of her life!"

"That is her punishment for failing to get her lesson with Leni!" Cristina snapped. "She failed to learn that by doing nothing, her family remains as a dysfunctional, overpopulated hell! Because she did nothing, her family suffers!"

"No, we suffer mainly because of you, and you can't deny that!" Lori snapped in return.

"Doesn't mean I have to recognize it, or even admit it's true," the redhead scoffed with a shrug.

Lori remained silent before asking, "Are you going to fight me or something?"

"In fact, I'm not even going to do anything to you," Cristina walked to Lori and handed her a piece of paper. "All I need is for you to send a simple message to your sisters, specially Lisa. Tell them that once Lincoln returns from the hospital, they must go to this location at once. If they refuse... well, they'll end up paying for it."

With that said, Lori took a single look at the paper before something more shocking came to her attention: Cristina quite literally flying away into the sunset. And she wasn't even using wings or anything, she just... levitated.

 _"Did she just?"_ Lori thought, before ditching the thought and returning home.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"So, how have you guys been without me?" Lincoln inquired.

Lori didn't respond.

"I mean, I've been gone for quite a while," Lincoln added, scratching the back of his head. "Did anything happen while I was gone? Did Luan learn better jokes, or do you have some spare messages so I can call Ronnie Anne? Or-"

"Lincoln, you have a lot of questions, I know, but please let me drive us home first," Lori stated, looking straight at the road.


	40. One Week Later

_A whole week later, at the hospital..._

Lincoln sat on his bed, now out of the uncomfortable hospital clothes and back on his normal, everyday outfit. He smiled as he heard Dr. Archer tell him about his condition.

"Okay, Lincoln, looks like your condition is stable enough to let you go back home," Dr. Archer explained, reading his clipboard. "However, I would recommend that you do not do anything that could end up being emotionally or mentally stressful. That could potentially make the wound reopen, or something far worse. I already sent a message to the person who will come pick you up, so everything else is up to them."

"Got it, doctor," Lincoln replied with a nod. "So, who did you call to come pick me up?"

Almost as if on cue, Lori opened the door and went inside, holding a worried look. At least her look changed to a hopeful one once she saw Lincoln was fine. She walked to him, grabbed his hand, and the duo walked out of the hospital as Dr. Archer bid farewell. And outside of a brief glance at Carol, the duo immediately went to the vanzilla outside and Lori drove back home.

"So, how have you guys been without me?" Lincoln inquired.

Lori didn't respond.

"I mean, I've been gone for quite a while," Lincoln added, scratching the back of his head. "Did anything happen while I was gone? Did Luan learn better jokes, or do you have some spare messages so I can call Ronnie Anne? Or-"

"Lincoln, you have a lot of questions, I know, but please let me drive us home first," Lori stated, looking straight at the road. "But, what I can tell you is that everybody has been doing, at the very least, decent while you were recovering."

"How so?" Linc asked.

Lori paused for a moment, before giving her brother a honest answer.

"Well, Luan has started studying good comedy-about time, if you ask me-Luna actually has managed to keep her loudness to herself, Lynn now practices sports exclusively on the backyard, Lucy actually knows when she can and can't ask people about her poems, the twins are still recovering from their traumas, Leni is slowly turning back to her normal self since we've needed a maternal figure with mom and dad nowhere to be seen, and Lisa-"

Suddenly, memories flashed in Lori's mind about Lisa's brutal beating at the hands of Cristina, making her pause and enter a trance, which she soon got over just as she almost crashed with another car.

"What?" Lincoln said, worried and confused. "What about Lisa?"

"Well, she's good too. Nothing to worry about," Lori hastily answered. "Calm down, the doctor told me if you get too agitated

"It's not my fault, you paused when you mentioned Lisa like something bad had happened to her, and I can't help but want to know what happened so I can try and comfort her," Lincoln answered. "I missed you guys, and you've suffered a lot, I want to try and atone for creating this whole mess in the first place."

"Why would you need to atone for that? You didn't force us to play the game, we forced you to let us play it," Lori replied, trying to comfort her little brother. "Besides, there's no way you would have known that VR game would create such a mess. It was made for us, Cristina had it for... whatever reason, that's all you knew. It's not your fault."

Lincoln didn't respond, and instead both he and Lori fell silent for the remainder of the ride.

 _Meanwhile, at the underground warehouse..._

Cristina-now back to wearing her normal blue outfit-opened the door and slowly walked to the chair she left Ronnie Anne in last week.

"Alright Ronnie, the week is up," Cristina said with a smug tone. "I sure hope you haven't been driven raving mad from what you've seen... Okay, so I couldn't care less if you were left sane after what you saw, but I would like to use you for my advantage one more time, dear "best friend."

Once she turned the chair around, however, Ronnie was nowhere to be seen, and there was a note attached to the chair. Cristina took the note and read it out loud:

"Dear Cristina, consider this my resignation. Also, screw you. With love, Bobby."

The redhead crumpled up the paper and threw it away. "Fine, so Ronnie's out of the picture," Cristina stated before walking towards the large monitor. "Carol, Tetherby, Ronnie, and Bobby. They no longer work under me. I'm glad I gave Lori the order to give Lincoln the message, 'cause it looks like I'll have to deal with her family myself."

From the thought alone, Cristina winced in disgust... before getting a malicious smirk.

 _Back at the Loud House..._

Lori opened the door and Lincoln promptly barged in, performing jazz hands as he said, "Boom, baby!"

He promptly flinched and clutched his chest as Lori came in and closed the door. "Lincoln, remember what the doctor told you about remaining calm," the teenage girl said, giving Lincoln a look of disapproval. "You don't want to return to the hospital after you just got out of there, do you?"

"Of course not," Lincoln replied, right before he saw something in the kitchen. "Hey, I think I can see Leni at the kitchen! I'll go say hi to her!"

And as Lincoln joyfully strolled to the kitchen, Lori just shook her head and smiled, relieved that her brother was this happy after all that had happened. Once Lincoln and Lori reached the kitchen, however, all they found was a tray filled with cinnamon rolls.

"Oh, wait, it's just a bunch of cinnamon rolls," Lincoln remarked, grabbing and eating one of the rolls as he added, "You know, back at the hospital, I got into thinking that people tend to call Leni a "cinnamon roll," and I even heard her call some of us her "precious cinnamon rolls" sometimes. Why do you think that's the case?"

"A cinnamon roll is sweet, so when people call somebody like that, it simply means that they think the person in question is a sweetheart," Lori explained.

"Heh, guess it fits Leni after all," Lincoln said with a chuckle.

"Lincoln?"

The boy and Lori turned around and saw Leni standing nearby, wearing an apron saying "Stop focusing on these" at the chest area, alongside her normal dress. After a short pause, Lincoln went to Leni and hugged her, "Leni, I missed you so much!" exclaimed the boy.

"I missed you too, Lincoln," Leni replied, brushing the boy's hair. "I made some cinnamon rolls for a little snack, and I'll make lunch in a moment. How about you go meet the rest? Lucy, Lola, Lana and Lisa are in their rooms, while Luna, Luan and Lynn are at the backyard."

Lincoln nodded, separated from Leni and immediately went upstairs, all while Lori and Leni watched him leave with relieved-if exhausted-looks. "I'm glad he's happy for once," Leni remarked, before turning to Lori.

However, she didn't say anything at first. She just looked at Lori, who eventually noticed and asked, "W-What's wrong?"

"Say, I've been meaning to ask you, what exactly are you supposed to do as Storge?" Leni inquired.

A hundred unpleasant memories flashed in Lori's mind as she remembered the sad truth: She was still one of the Four Lovers. She still worked under Cristina, and would continue to do so until she was stopped. Nevertheless, she took a deep breath before answering, twiddling her fingers nervously, "I have no idea."

"What do you mean?" Leni asked in shock.

"Cristina hasn't contacted me, Eros hasn't done so either, and with all that's been going on, I've essentially forgotten what my purpose in this whole clusterfuck of a plan," Lori explained, rubbing her forehead. "I just wish this would all end already so we could go back to more mundane life problems."

Leni put a hand in Lori's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile, which the teenager returned before the pair rubbed their noses together.

 _Upstairs..._

Lincoln glanced at his sisters' bedroom doors. He took his time to decide which room to go to first, after all, it's not like he had anything important to do... right? But anyway, he promptly went to Lucy and Lynn's bedroom, where he saw Lucy reading something on her bed.

However, a closer inspection revealed that what she was reading was a Princess Pony book. Knowing Lucy, she would probably at the very least read something slightly morbid or macabre, and not read something like Princess Pony so openly. Yes, even she needed to take a break from the darkness every once in a while, but she also knew that she couldn't read it so openly, lest one of her sisters found out she read something like that.

"Hi Lucy!" Lincoln gleefully cheered.

The emo jumped from the place and turned around, only to stop in disbelief once she saw Lincoln. She even pulled up her bangs, revealing her eyes, only to see the boy closer. Given the last time Lucy's eyes were uncovered, she wasn't exactly... herself, Lincoln found it refreshing to see the real Lucy's eyes for once.

"Lincoln!" Lucy exclaimed, beaming a smile before hugging Lincoln in delight. "It's really you!"

"Yep, I'm back from the hospital," the boy said as he and Lucy separated. "How have you been, Lucy?"

"Good, though a bit lonely without you," Lucy answered, twiddling her fingers. "Ever since Lynn decided to do her sports business exclusively outside, I've got quite a lot of alone time in my room. I still get irritated by the occasional fight here and there, but Lynn no longer gets on my nerves... usually, anyway."

"Nice. Hey, I noticed you were reading a Princess Pony book," Lincoln remarked, pointing at the book in question. He paused to see Lucy's reaction, and when she didn't try desperately to hide the book, he added, "Care to explain why are you doing that out in the open?"

"Oh, well, while you were in the hospital, our sisters eventually found out I liked Princess Pony, but since you weren't here I had nobody to go to for comfort," Lucy explained, clasping her hands and looking at the ground. "I entered depression for a day or two, and eventually, my sisters decided that just 'cause they disliked the book didn't mean that they could make fun of me about it. So, they let me read it, as long as I don't try to force them to like it."

Lincoln found it interesting, specially since it seemed like it was a bit... contrived. "Lucy, who was the sister that convinced the others to leave you alone?" the boy inquired.

"Leni," Lucy answered.

Now it was definitely suspicious. "Well, I'll let you return to your business," he said, bidding farewell.

Lucy waved goodbye as Lincoln left the room and mentally added "talk to Leni" to his to-do list. The next room he went to was the room of Lily and Lisa, where he saw-and watched-Lisa walk back and forth as she said something from a paper.

"Dear boy, I have been missing you ever since you went to the hospital, and I wish I had been braver and told you how I felt before I wound up hurting you," Lisa said, pausing before hugging the paper and adding, "I just want to see you again, tell you how sorry I was, and..." then she threw the paper away. "No, that's not going to work, it's too cheesy!"

"It sounds good enough to me," Lincoln blurted.

Lisa jumped in surprise, and her whole face turned red once she turned around and saw Lincoln walking to her. "L-L-Lincoln! I didn't knew you arrived!" she stuttered as the boy brushed her hair with a smile. "H-How was your stay at the hospital?"

"It was decent, I guess, but I missed my sisters," Lincoln answered. "How have you been, Lisa? Done any experiments lately?"

"N-No... B-Believe it or not, I haven't focused as much on science-related stuff as usual," Lisa nervously answered, twiddling her fingers as she hit the note and tried to explain herself. "Y-You see, I like this boy... he's, a bit older than me, and is very kind and tends to suffer a lot."

"Well, whoever he is, I bet he'll be a lucky guy once you two start dating or something," Lincoln remarked before walking to Lily's baby bed and brushing her hair. "Hi Lily! Did you miss me?"

As the baby and the boy shared some precious moments together, Lisa watched with a forced smile, though she was more upset at the fact she failed to confess her feelings to Lincoln, rather than the fact Lincoln paid more attention to Lily than her. Then, when Lincoln started to leave, the smart brunette turned o him and shouted "Wait!"

"Yes, Lisa? What is it?" the boy inquired, immediately turning to the little genius.

Lisa paused, trying to think of what to say next. Confess her feelings right now, or leave it for later? Eventually, she just said the next:

"I'm happy you're back."

Lincoln gave the girl a joyful smile in return before leaving. However, once he was out of view, Lisa's forced smile vanished and she went to her baby sister, her look becoming somber and exhausted.

"Why can't I tell him what I feel, Lily?" she asked the baby. "Why can't I gather enough courage to just spit it out?"

The baby simply laughed, not really knowing what Lisa was telling her. Despite this, Lisa smiled and brushed Lily's head, making the baby clap and giggle some more.

So up next, Lincoln went to the twins bedroom, where he saw easily the most shocking sight in existence: Lola and Lana, having a normal tea party, without getting on each other's nerves.

And then they saw Lincoln, and they immediately ran to him. "Lincoln!" the twins exclaimed before hugging their older brother. "You're back!"

"Uh, yeah, I just got back from the hospital," Lincoln remarked before returning the hug. "You know, I expected some things to change when I got back, but I didn't expect to see you two actually getting along."

"Well, after everything that's happened, we had to try get along for our sakes, and it has worked so far," Lana explained, scratching the back of her head. "Just don't mention either incident that mortified us and we'll remain fine."

"And what about your feelings for each other?" Lincoln inquired.

The twins gave Lincoln annoyed glares. "Okay, sorry, I figured you'd somewhat resolve that by now, but it seems I was wrong," the boy replied before leaving the room. "Go back to your tea party, I'll go meet with Lynn, Luna and Luan at the backyard."

And as he closed the door, the twins shared worried looks.

 _At the backyard..._

Lincoln opened the door and saw Luna at the goalpost, ready to block Lynn's incoming ball while Luan cheered for her nearby. And once Luna spotted Lincoln, she dropped everything and ran to him.

"Lincoln!" Luna exclaimed, giving her brother a hug. "I'm so glad to see you again!"

And then Lynn kicked the ball and scored a goal. "Yes! Point for Lynn!" the athlete exclaimed victoriously, catching everybody's attention.

"Oh come on, Lynn, we both know Lincoln is more important than the game," Luna complained as she and Lincoln walked to the sports fan. "Can't you be a good sport and drop it to greet your brother too?"

"Hey, everything's fair in love and football," Lynn answered with a chuckle. "But anyway, it's good to see you again after so long, Lincoln."

Lincoln and Lynn shook hands as Luan got off the bench and approached the white-haired boy. "Hi Lincoln, it sure is nice to see you again!" the comedian said, kissing her brother's forehead. "This week really felt incomplete without you."

"Yeah, it certainly felt like forever," Lincoln somberly said, looking at the ground. "But I'm glad you were _patient_ enough to wait."

The quartet laughed while Lincoln turned around and saw the broken remains of the game, systems and VR helmets on a dumpster. He separated from the trio and ran straight to it.

"You destroyed the games, systems and helmets?" the boy asked with surprise.

"It was something we had to do, bro," Luna said as she, Luan and Lynn walked to Lincoln's side. "After all we suffered thanks to them, we simply had to get rid of them sooner or later."

"And taking into account who's out there, we had to do it as soon as possible," Luan whispered to Lincoln's ear.

The boy smiled, relieved that the game that brought so much misery had finally been destroyed. Then, he looked at the sky as thought about what to do next. He already greeted his sisters, and they seemed to be doing fine, so only one question remained in his head:

What happened to Ronnie-Anne?

 _Meanwhile, at the Santiago Household..._

Ronnie Anne suddenly woke up and took a look at her surroundings. She was no longer in the cold, desolate underground base of the warehouse she was trapped in, but she was now in the home she grew up and loved. And right next to her was a certain someone: Her older brother, Bobby.

"I'm glad you woke up," Bobby told the girl, brushing her hair. "I was starting to get worried."

But the girl didn't respond at the moment. She was still too traumatized from the sheer crap she was forced to sit through. Once she managed to speak, however, all that came out was a meek, "Hi Bobby."

"Oh geez, you don't sound nearly as rough as usual," Bobby remarked, his worries immediately returning. "Do you feel okay? I figured sleeping for a while would help you recover, so did it work?"

"Are you safe?" Ronnie asked. She apparently didn't even hear the last question. "If you are, then it's okay. I'm okay."

"No, it's not okay, specially not if my sister winds up acting like this," the teenager grabbed the girl and carried her to the kitchen, bridal style. "Come on, maybe getting something to eat will help you recover some more."

Bobby put Ronnie on a chair and then went to make lunch while Ronnie turned on the TV. For the most part, she failed to find anything that caught her interest, until she found a news segment about Cristina's escape from the hospital. Once she saw it, her eyes sprung open and she firmly listened to what the news anchor said:

"An unfortunate incident happened last week at the local Royal Woods hospital. Supposedly, 11-Year-Old Cristina Johnson escaped the building during what was reported to be a temporary light failure. According to her assigned nurse, Carol Pingrey, the nurses and doctors were doing their rounds when the girl escaped, and her current whereabouts are unknown."

Ronnie's heart skipped a bit... and her anger grew intense. She calmed down once Bobby brought her lunch, though.

"Let's try not to focus on Cristina for now, okay?" the boy said, sitting next to his sister. "Eat your food, and I'll see what we can do later to clear your mind from all this mess, alright?"

"Okay," Ronnie meekly answered.

So the tomboy ate her lunch as her desire to make Cristina pay grew bigger. The redhead was out there, no doubt about it, and somebody had to capture her and make her pay for what she had done. And then a voice spoke to her:

 _"Clyde knows where Cristina is."_

The tomboy paused when she heard that.

 _Meanwhile, at the Loud House..._

Lincoln sat on the couch and watched TV with his sisters, surfing the channels as they ate what Leni made for lunch. However, what caught his attention the most were the friendship bracelets most of his sisters had, which he failed to notice until now. "So, why do you still wear those friendship bracelets?" Lincoln inquired, catching his sisters' attention. "I figured a week would be long enough to let you get rid of them."

"We tried to do that, but these things are really clingy, kind of like Lori as a girlfriend," Luna remarked, scoffing at the mention of Lori.

"Lola at the very least managed to get rid of her own, but the rest of us, not so much," Lynn added.

Lincoln just hummed to himself as he thought about it. He figured it was probably just a matter of patience, maybe another week would be needed. But one thing was very clear:

Leni's lunch was absolutely delicious.

"I really missed your cooking, Leni," Lincoln told the girl. "The food at the hospital was so bland, it's good to eat something with flavor for once."

Leni just nodded and smiled, appreciating the gesture. And then, when Lincoln reached the same news segment Ronnie Anne did, he nonchalantly changed the channel again. "Wait, what did that news segment say about Cristina?" Lynn asked, pointing at the TV.

"Nothing we need to worry about," Lincoln answered.

"Y-Yeah, don't think about it too long," Leni added, looking to her left and right in worry.

"I think I heard it say Cristina was on the loose-" Lana blurted.

"Cristina's on the loose?!" Lola shrieked before curling into a fetal position. "The whole world just turned into a deathtrap!"

"H-Hey, Lola, calm down! No need to panic!" Lana told her sister, putting a hand in her shoulder. "Sorry I said that she was on the loose, It's just a guess I'm taking! Who knows, maybe she was already found and apprehended?"

Lincoln, seeing that his sisters needed to see the news segment, changed the channel back to it... and then saw it was about something related to the school.

"Shocking news: Days after disappearing from the school, a girl known by Ronnie Anne has been spotted walking around like a mummy at the school," said the news anchor, showing a picture of Ronnie Anne in the hallways, looking like bigfoot. "Due to her seemingly unstable state of mind, it's recommended that if she's seen, that you don't do anything that would scare or anger her."

"See? Nothing about Cristina at all!" Lana told her sister with confidence.

Cue the news anchor adding: "On other news, the 11-Year-Old known as Cristina Johnson is still on the loose."

Lola promptly freaked out. "I have to go see her!" Lincoln calmly stated as he got off the couch.

"Wait, you can't just go out like that!" Lori scowled, blocking Lincoln's way. "The girl whose name begins with C is out there, what will happen if you wind up meeting her on your way to the school?"

"Lori, I need to see how Ronnie has been doing! I haven't seen her since the while dance fiasco, and this is my chance to see if she's still holding up okay!" Lincoln said as he avoided Lori and opened the door. "I don't care what you say, but I'm going to go see her right now!"

The boy closed the door, and just as Lori and some of the sisters chased after him, Leni pressed her bracelet as she said, "This is something he has to do on his own," which made the sisters stop right on their tracks... except for Lisa, who went after Lincoln just as her bracelet slid off her arm and hit the ground.

 _"Oh no..."_ Leni thought, her eyes opening wide in shock.

 _At the School..._

Ronnie slithered across the hallways, flashing enraged glares at anybody she came across in her search for Clyde. However, no matter how many times she looked, Clyde wasn't among the crowd of terrified children. Granted, she didn't mind this sight either: After what she saw, knowing everybody else was too afraid of her relieved her to some extent. At least she could prevent Lincoln from being stolen from her.

"Ronnie Anne?"

The tomboy turned to the source of the voice: Clyde McBride. Once she saw him, the boy flinched as the girl gave him an extended, firm stare while saying "Clyde..." in a tone that sounded both angry and surprised. To say the boy was scared would be an understatement, and he looked around for a way to run, only to see the scared kids surrounding both him and Ronnie.

And worst of all, this all happened while a certain redhead watched from the shadows.

"R-Ronnie, y-you need to calm down!" Clyde stuttered, backing away from the enraged tomboy.

"Cristina... Cristina... Cristina..." Ronnie chanted as she slowly walked closer to Clyde.

Then, without warning, Ronnie leaped straight for Clyde, pinned him to the ground and yelled "Where's Cristina?!" at the top of her lungs.

"H-How am I supposed to know?! As far as I'm aware, I don't even exist to her!" Clyde snapped in return, shedding tears. "You would have a far easier time finding her if you checked with her other friends-"

"She _has_ no other friends!" Ronnie snapped, shedding tears as well. "I was the only one who ever approached her! I'm the only one she ever bothered to hang out with! But now, she's tortured me! She's mocked me! All because I refused to to do as she said, once!"

"Oh my, I didn't expect you to be a crybaby about it."

Ronnie turned around and saw some of the students move out to reveal the source of the comment: Cristina, leaning against a wall, with an arm behind her back, sporting a smug smile.

The instant she saw her, Ronnie threw Clyde away and leaped for the redhead, who took out a large, tuning fork-like object and struck Ronnie with, shocking both her and the tomboy in the process. However, Cristina just mildly flinched at the shock.

Then, once Ronnie hit the ground, Lincoln and Lisa arrived at the scene and helped Clyde get up while Cristina tied up Ronnie and lifted her with one hand. When the white-haired boy and redhead girl met each other, Lincoln immediately winced and took a step back, while Cristina didn't even react...

At first, anyway.

"Hey, Lincoln," Cristina said, before showing the unconscious Ronnie to Lincoln. "Look who I got."

"Ronnie-Anne!" Linc exclaimed, his fear being thrown out of the window and replaced with determined anger.

Just as Cristina left and Lincoln gave chase, however, both Lisa and Clyde restrained him. "Lincoln, wait! You can't just chase after Cristina!" Clyde exclaimed as he and Lisa successfully got Lincoln to stop.

"Clyde has a point! Whatever is up with Cristina, she's no longer normal!" Lisa stated, twiddling her fingers. "When I fought her, she unleashed some sort of highly power... wave of energy of sorts that sent me flying, and according to Lori, she saw her fly away after Leni took me back home."

"Wait, powerful shockwave? Glowing red eyes? Flight?" Lincoln remarked, utterly baffled at the idea. Even with all that had happened up to this point, Cristina possessing such abilities didn't sound believable at all. "Are you sure you didn't imagine her having those things?"

"Maybe the flight was something Lori made up, but I saw the glowing eyes and explosive shockwave with my very own eyes," Lisa answered. "Again, I don't think it's a good idea to chase after Cristina right away. Let's regroup back at the house to figure out what we should do next."

One glance at the fleeting redhead later, Lincoln couldn't help but nod in agreement. He just came out of the hospital, so even if Cristina didn't use those supernatural abilities Lisa mentioned, it wasn't worth the risk. Not yet. So he and Lisa did the only thing they could do: return home.

 _Back at the Loud House's Living Room..._

Lincoln walked back and forth while his sisters watched him, with Lisa and Lori in particular looking rather worried. "So, to recap: Cristina is on the loose, Ronnie Anne was captured by her, and now we need to both rescue Ronnie and make Cristina pay for what she has done," the boy recapped before turning to his sisters. "Any suggestions?"

"How about you take a bit of a breather, bro?" Luna suggested.

"Luna has a point, you just came out of the hospital," Lynn remarked, nodding in agreement. "Do you really want to risk anything by going after Cristina right now?"

"Girls, I know you're worried about me, but you have to look at the bigger picture: While I was out of commission for a week, Cristina has been out and about, for practically the same amount of time," Lincoln explained, making the girls flinch at the idea. "We know from what she did to us that she's willing to force people to get together. Can you imagine what she could do to more people, or even all of Royal Woods, if nobody does something to stop her?"

Going by the girls' horrified flinching, they didn't even want to think about the possibility. But in that moment, Leni caught Lori's attention and reminded her of something. A thing Cristina gave her a long time ago.

So Lori went to Lincoln, crouched to his height and said, "Lincoln, there's something you need to see."

She took out the paper Cristina gave her, then handed it to Lincoln. The boy opened the paper and saw it was a simple map leading to a single location. So he and his sisters, feeling ready to go, headed straight for the location given on the map and soon found themselves in the middle of the forest, and in front of a large red tower, whose top pierced the heavens.

"Something tells me the size of this place is similar to Cristina's ego," Luan joked, followed by a laugh. "Get it?"

"A-Are you sure we should go there now, Lincoln?" Lynn nervously asked. "I mean, what if we're not ready for whatever's inside?"

"Lynn has a point," Lucy remarked. "Cristina has had a lot of tricks up her sleeves: the chips, the helmets, the bracelets. Who knows what she has inside that place. It could be something even worse."

"I know and understand that you're all afraid of doing this, but we have no other choice," Lincoln stated. "You saw what she did to us. I saw what she did to Ronnie Anne. If we don't stop whatever plan she has, who will?"

Lincoln took a look at the tower before turning to his sisters, his look filled with determination. "Now, we have the chance to get payback for what she's done, and we have to take this chance while we still can!" Lincoln proclaimed, the wind blowing in his hair. "However, if any of you want to go back home and let her make more people suffer, then I won't stop you."

After a short pause, the sisters went to Lincoln's side and gave him reassuring looks. And so, knowing his sisters were by his side, Lincoln's determination grew even bigger.

"Let's go kick Cristina's butt!" Lincoln exclaimed, raising his fist.

The sisters raised their fists and cheered as they and Lincoln ventured forth into the tower and got ready to break through...

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"You know, I'm a bit disappointed," Lincoln remarked, putting his hands on his hips. "I mean, for a place where we'll confront the person responsible for our suffering once and for all, this place seems a bit... lacking."

"C-C-Can we g-g-get moving?" Luna asked, hugging herself as she shivered. "My a-a-arse is f-f-freezing over here!"

"Y-Yeah, m-m-m-mine too!" Lola whined, doing the same.


	41. Into the Gauntlets

_Inside the Tower..._

The Louds quite literally kicked the main door open, though that was mostly thanks to Leni and Lori's combined strengths. Once the door was basically busted, the siblings took a quick look around.

The tower was basically as sterile and cold as the underground warehouse, and the current room they were in didn't exactly have anything that made it stand out. Nothing outside of the elevator in the middle of the room and the rather cold temperature, anyway.

"You know, I'm a bit disappointed," Lincoln remarked, putting his hands on his hips. "I mean, for a place where we'll confront the person responsible for our suffering once and for all, this place seems a bit... lacking."

"C-C-Can we g-g-get moving?" Luna asked, hugging herself as she shivered. "My a-a-arse is f-f-freezing over here!"

"Y-Yeah, m-m-m-mine too!" Lola whined, doing the same.

"I told you to put on some panties before we left," Lana and Luan told their respective partners. And then they looked at each other in surprise.

"Okay, we have no time to waste, let's look for Cristina," Lincoln remarked, looking to his left and right. "Where do we start looking?"

"Actually, Lincoln, Lori and I have an idea," Leni told Lincoln, briefly glancing at the dumbfounded Lori before adding, "How about we go up ahead in order to see if we get to find Cristina first? That way, we could try to soften her up so that when you get to her, she'll be easy to defeat."

"Um, I don't remember having discussed that with you," Lori remarked, crossing her arms.

"Um, I don't remember you being a whiny bitch," Leni growled in response. "No, wait, I do remember you being a whiny bitch for, like, all of our dang life! So how about you swallow your fear and help me find the red brat?"

Lori gave Leni an angry glare before turning to her brother, "What do you say, Lincoln?"

"If you're up for it, I say you can go ahead," Lincoln shrugged. "You go through the elevator, while we decide if we go left or right."

Lori nodded and she and Leni went to the elevator, which promptly went up as Linc and his remaining sisters looked at the available paths. "Now, where should we go, girls?" Lincoln asked, scratching his chin.

"Allow me to give you a suggestion!"

The boy and girls looked around for the source of the voice as a large monitor came down, turned on and revealed Cristina, literally looking down at the Louds... and wearing a weird piece of machinery around her forehead, alongside a shock collar on her neck.

"Cristina!" Lincoln stated, narrowing his eyes as he and his sisters flinched.

 _Meanwhile, with Lori and Leni..._

The duo waited for their elevator ride to finish. They leaned against the walls and silently looked away from each other, although Lori briefly tried to strike up a conversation before ditching the plan. And then, a voice spoke to Lori:

"When the elevator opens, you must go to the right."

However, another voice spoke to Leni:

"When the elevator opens, you must go to the left."

And almost as if on cue, the elevator ride finished and the elevator opened its doors. The girls walked out and looked around to see two paths, a left one and a right one. Both had doors at the end of them, but besides that, there wasn't anything of importance in the room.

"Leni, I think-" Lori blurted.

Once she turned around, however, Leni was already halfway into the left path, right before she stopped and told Lori, "I won't ask if you don't ask" before continuing on her way. Lori just nodded and went through the door to the right.

She went into the room, and the door suddenly slammed itself shut as the lights turned on, revealing that not only was Lori in the middle of an arena with a cloaked figure, but Cristina herself sat on a throne nearby. She was also back to wearing her black and red dress, alongside the life support shock system.

"Cristina!" Lori snapped, turning to the redhead. "What are you doing here?! What do you want?!"

"I'm very sure your opponent can answer that for you," the redhead answered.

And then the cloaked figure took out their cloak and revealed themselves to be Carol Pingrey, who looked rather melancholic and somber, yet determined nonetheless.

"C-Carol?" Lori asked, both in fear and curiosity. "W-What are you doing here?"

"Your time has come to take up the mantle, Lori," Carol answered, cracking her knuckles. "But Cristina told me to not give you the power of Storge so easily. You'll have to fight to get it."

Once she realized what this meant, and glancing at Cristina smiling in the distance, Lori backed away in fear. "W-Wait... a-a-are you serious, Carol?!" Lori asked, twiddling her fingers. "Isn't there a way we can discuss this without resorting to violence?"

Carol remained silent before seemingly teleporting right in front of Lori. "I'm sorry," Carol said before shape-shifting into Luna. "But this is something we must do."

And then she morphed her arm into a guitar and smacked Lori with it, with the strike being hard enough to send her rolling into one of the corners of the arena. "Good job, Carol, just what I like to see!" Cristina said with a chuckle.

By the time Lori managed to get back up from the attack, Carol teleported next to her and shape-shifted into Luan before smacking her with her shifted arm, which now took the look of Mr. Coconuts.

Once Lori got back up, she immediately voiced her complains at Cristina. "Wait, she can shape-shift into my other sisters?! I mean, I know she can shift into Luna, but when has she been able to shape-shift into my other sisters?! That's just bullshit, and I don't speak that language!"

It was difficult to figure out what was more shocking: That Lori had the guts to complain at Cristina, or the fact that Cristina didn't rip those exact guts right here and there. "Oh come on, isn't there any weapon I can use to make this more fair?!"

"Not yet, your blood must still be shed before I feel satisfied enough to actually give you a hand," Cristina replied. "Don't worry, though, depending how weak you are, that might be coming soon."

Lori turned back to Carol, who had now shape-shifted into Lynn, and she took a battle stance as Carol-Lynn took out a ball and spun it around...

 _Meanwhile, with Leni..._

The teenager went through the door, and the first thing she noticed was a chair and next to it what looked like a torture room, though she could only see a blood-stained bed from the window.

Leni stopped on her tracks as the chair turned around, revealing Cristina holding a voice-altering microphone, and like the previous Cristina, she had the red-black dress with the life support system. The teenager promptly flinched when she saw the redhead.

"Greetings, Leni," Cristina said, almost as if she was greeting a friend. "I'm so glad we can finally meet face-to-face."

"I wish I could say the same, your bitchyness," Leni scoffed, right before realizing something, "Wait, you were the voice all along?!"

"Wow, no wonder they call you the dumbest Loud, it takes you forever to process new information!" Cristina joked, chuckling to herself as Leni formed a pair of fists and clenched her teeth. "Besides, what you just said isn't all that right. _The_ voice doesn't exist."

Leni quickly became confused. "What do you mean?"

"There is no single voice, what you and your siblings have been hearings have been multiple voices," Cristina explained. "Some on my side and some on your side."

"I still have no idea what you're talking about," Leni stated, crossing her arms.

Cristina frowned and rubbed her forehead in exasperation. Then again, she was trying to explain something to Leni, of all people. "You know what? Let's cut straight to the point," the redhead stated.

The door to the torture room opened, and four mechanical arms came out of it and grabbed Leni, who fruitlessly tried to break free as she was taken to the torture room, with Cristina entering the room soon afterwards.

Leni was strapped to the bed, and she got a better look at the torture room: Alongside some blood stains on the walls, there was a large shelf filled with nothing but jars, which themselves were filled with pink... things, floating in the water. And then the redhead went to Leni's side.

"Alright, Leni, remember when the voice promised you to help your make sure Lori never lied again? Make sure Lisa listened to you?" Cristina asked, earning a nod from the teenager. "I was that voice, and I plan to keep my word. But first, I must ask, why didn't you do what I expected you to do?"

"Come again?" Leni asked.

"I gave you the bracelets to help me break your family even more!" Cristina snapped, slamming her fist down the table. "Why didn't you use them for that!?"

"Oh please, you honestly think I would break my family? My agenda is different than yours!" Leni scoffed. "If anything, it's your fault for trusting me in the first place!"

The redhead actually flinched at the statement. Not that Leni was any more trustworthy earlier, but the fact that Leni was quite clearly not going to follow Cristina's plans wasn't something she thought about until now.

"I... I see..." Cristina growled, soon regaining her composure. "Now, let me explain to you what will happen if you fail to follow my orders."

Cristina walked to the shelf, took one of the jars and showed it to Leni. "These..." started the redhead, holding a pause just long enough to give Leni an idea of what she was seeing. "Are pink fingernails."

Leni took a breath of relief, before Cristina pointed at the remaining jars.

"And those are torn crotch pimples."

It was in that moment that Leni nearly lost her lunch.

"Now, if you refuse to follow my orders, or decide to rebel against me, I will literally rip off your crotch pimple and smack your crotch until you plead for me to stop!" Cristina stated, remaining unfazed as Leni got goosebumps just thinking about it. "Trust me, what is about to happen to you is a blessing compared to that."

"W-What are you going to do to me?!" Leni asked in a panic.

The redhead just flashed a sadistic smirk before she snapped her fingers, making the mechanical arms transform into a hammer, a tazer, a plank, and a TV screen displaying cheesy, almost unbearable soap operas.

And as the door closed, Leni screamed in pure agony as the arms approached her...

 _Back with Lincoln and the sisters..._

The boy and girls tried to stand their ground as the entire building shook, with Leni's screams echoing in the atmosphere. Cristina, however, didn't even flinch at the screams. In fact, going by her delighted smile and moaning, she seemed to be enjoying it.

"Huh, It's good to hear a tortured scream that isn't mine for once," Cristina remarked, no doubt catching Lincoln's attention. "Anyway, as I was saying-"

Then, Leni's screams once again echoed in the scenery. This time, however, they seemed to be getting on Cristina's nerves.

"O-Okay, Leni, you can stop screaming now," the redhead said, narrowing her eyes.

Unsurprisingly enough, the screaming continued. So, unable to take the screaming anymore, Cristina simply turned off the sounds coming from the torture room and took a minute to relax.

"You know, I wonder sometimes why so many villains enjoy agonized screaming so much," Cristina remarked, rubbing her forehead. "I mean it's satisfying to an extent at first, but they get very irritating, very quickly. Know what I'm saying?"

"Cut the crap and tell us what you want already!" Lincoln snapped, gritting his teeth.

Lynn and Lucy covered Lola and Lana's ears while Lisa, Luna and Luan watched in shock. Lisa even uttered "Lincoln" in complete surprise, and Cristina actually flinched from the barking, all while Lincoln continued to firmly glare at her.

However, the redhead soon regained her composure and chuckled before answering, "Well, somebody's just wishing for me to rip off his guts, isn't he? Fine then, let me explain the deal to you: This place has several gauntlets that ultimately lead up to my room. You must cross the gauntlets and come to my room, that is, if you really do wish to face me already."

"Can't we just ignore those gauntlets and head straight to your room?" Lisa pointed out.

"Well, well, welly well, who do we have here? Lisa Loud, being a smartass as usual," Cristina scoffed, her tone turning hostile. "I'm afraid the answer is no, you can't, because I'll make sure you have no other choice. Like, for example, teleporting you straight to the gauntlets!"

"Wait!" Lincoln exclaimed, catching the redhead's attention. "Before you send us there, can you tell us why do you insist on hurting us even more? We already got heartbroken, don't you care about that?!"

"Oh Lincoln," Cristina chuckled, and then her shock collar... Shocked her, causing her to answer, "I stopped caring a long time ago."

The redhead pressed a button, and the siblings-in teams of two, formed by Lincoln and Lisa, Lynn and Lucy, Lola and Lana and Luna and Luan-were trapped in tubes, right before being teleported to enclosed rooms just as the monitor turned off.

 _Gauntlet of Separation..._

The first team to arrive were Luna and Luan, who immediately looked around for a way out of the mess. However, there were only two doors on their enclosed room, and the one they tried at first was closed.

"Seriously, Cristina? Are you for real?" Luan complained, trying her hardest to open the closed door. "Come on, Cristina! At least let me show you some of my material before you kick me out of the stage! Hahaha, get it?"

Luna went to the remaining door, and gestured Luan to come to her side as she grabbed the doorknob. She opened the door, and the duo entered the gauntlet, although "maze" was a far more appropriate maze.

"Welcome to the maze of lovers!" Cristina's voice shouted from seemingly nowhere. "All you have to do find the exit to this maze, and get to the next door together. But be careful, I made sure to not make this maze a piece of cake. Mostly 'cause I prefer actual cake. Anyhow, off you go!"

The voice fell silent as the duo looked at the two available paths: Left and Right. "Tell you what, Love, how about I take the right path while you take the left path?" Luna suggested, wrapping her arm around Luan's shoulder.

"Do we really have to split?" Luan asked. "I mean, bad things tend to happen to couples who get separated for too long."

"Don't worry, we'll just stay separated until one of us gets to the end," Luna answered. "Once one of us gets to the door, we'll call the other and tell her how to reach her, got it?"

Luan nodded and, feeling confident, the couple separated and went their own routes, all while they could faintly hear Cristina's laughter in the distance. A laughter that sounded almost demonic.

 _Gauntlet of Sports..._

The next team to arrive were Lynn and Lucy, who immediately went through the only door in the room. Once they went inside, they found themselves in a large football field, with Cristina-with the black and red dress-acting as the only other player around.

"Haha! You honestly thought making our gauntlet a sports-related one was a good idea?" Lynn asked as she went to the field and Lucy sat on a bench. "I'm totally going to destroy you, just you wait, Cristina!"

The redhead narrowed her eyes before she summoned a glowing football and gave Lynn a glowing glare. This was enough to intimidate the athlete.

"Okay, something tells me this isn't going to be as easy as I thought," Lynn mentally remarked, backing away before regaining her composure. "But no matter! I need to be strong! I need to avenge both Lucy and Lana!"

Shortly afterwards, Cristina threw the glowing football at Lynn, who caught the ball almost effortlessly... only for the ball to not only explode in her face, but stun her long enough to let Cristina punch her upwards and then teleport to kick her back to the ground.

"Lynn!" Lucy exclaimed as the athlete crash-landed.

And as the athlete got back up and dusted herself, Cristina flew back to the ground and crossed her arms as the girl's laughter echoed in the distance...even though she wasn't even opening her mouth. The laughter sounded just as demonic as with Luna and Luan.

 _"What the hell is up with that laughter?!"_ Lynn thought in exasperation.

 _Gauntlet of Ignored Issues..._

The next team to arrive were Lola and Lana, who hesitantly went through the door. What they found inside, however, was surprisingly pleasant: A vast field covered in pink flowers and trees, with the sun setting in the horizon... somehow.

"Wow, this place... doesn't look half-bad, actually," Lola remarked as she and Lana went inside. And, seeing they were in a pleasant place for once, she added, "Lana, I think we should discuss something about... ourselves."

"Let me guess, you wanna talk about our problems and stuff like that," Lana guessed, earning a nod from her twin. "Listen, it may have been a while since they happened, but I'm not in the mood to talk about either of them, unless you want remember those delightful moments."

"We have to talk about them and our feelings for each other eventually, we've been ignoring them for quite a while," Lola remarked, and her twin couldn't help but agree. "So how about I start? I think that, while you can be a bit of a mess every once in a while, I do respect and find you to be a pretty good sister."

"Nice, now how about you tell how you _really_ feel?" Lana asked, crossing her arms.

The ex-diva was caught off-guard by the sentence, but she nevertheless regained her composure before answering, with pure honesty: "Lana, we've been living together for six years now. Ever since we played the sim date game, some feelings... blossomed, but for the longest time I had no idea what they were. In fact, after discovering about the chips deal, I was skeptical about whether they were real or not."

"Would you please get to the point before this whole place turns into a living underworld?" Lana requested.

Suddenly, Lola grabbed Lana by the shoulders and forced her to look at her face. "I love you Lana! As a sister, as a lover, as whatever else that can be loved!" Lola proclaimed. "And while I'm still young enough to believe in cooties, if I were to kiss or date someone, I wouldn't mind if it was you!"

Once the shock from the revelation wore off, Lana grabbed her sister's face and replied, "I feel the same way, to an extent. I do love you as a sister, lover, and anything else... but we can't be together. We're sisters, and this is all just a ploy to play with our emotions and help Cristina with... whatever she's planning."

"Heh, you're sounding older than you really are," Lola scoffed.

"Lola, we've been talking and sounding older, just as old, and younger than we really are for a while now," Lana said. "Besides, that's easily the least weirdest thing about what's happening right now."

The chuckled for a bit before Lola asked, "Do we talk about our problems now?"

Though caught off-guard by the question, Lana forced a smile and answered, "Yes, let's do that."

Without warning, the flowers turned blood red and the trees withered as the sunset was replaced by a blood moon. To say the twins were surprised by the abrupt change would be... quite appropriate, actually.

"Something tells me we shouldn't have said that," the twins said in unison.

Then, just to seal the deal, the duo saw a pair of shadowy figures approaching them: Lynn and Cristina, with glowing red eyes and wide smiles.

"Oh no! Not them again!" the twins frantically shrieked.

And as the twins hugged each other in fear, Cristina's laughter echoed in the horizon, sounding both demonic and deranged.

 _Gauntlet of Confession..._

And the last team to arrive were Lincoln and Lisa, who also went through the door immediately. What they found was... a large empty room, with another door presumably leading to Cristina across a large, seemingly bottomless abyss.

"Well, looks like we're stuck here," Lincoln remarked as Lisa took a look at the abyss. "Hey, Cristina, if you're around, tell us what we're supposed to do! You've been vague for way too darn long, and I'm getting sick ofi t!"

The little genius backed away from the abyss right before a voice spoke to her:

 _"It's your chance."_

However, this voice actually sounded friendly, as if it was legitimately on Lisa's side.

 _"Tell him how you feel. Tell him you love him. It's the only thing you can do now."_

Of course, given the previous experiences the Loud family had with voices, Lisa was a bit skeptical about following the voice's instructions. But then again, the two were stuck in the middle of nowhere, so, she didn't have any other options.

"L-Lincoln..." Lisa blurted, catching her brother's attention. "I-I have to tell you something."

"Alright then, what's this about?" Lincoln asked, crossing his arms.

The small brunette walked to Lincoln and looked at the ground as she spoke. "Lincoln, these past few days... have been a mess. With the chips, and now the bracelets, and now this. But, what I need to talk about with you, is somehing that happened in the resort..."

The smart girl twiddled her fingers and blushed as she added, "Something that has only grown ever since we came back home, and now that we're here, I just have to-"

"Lisa, please get to the point," Lincoln requested.

The scientist flinched, but nonetheless recognized that she really did have to get to the point already.

A pair of purple lights opened in the shadows before Lisa simply stated:

"I love you, Lincoln! I really feel like I love you!" she then hugged the boy shocked voice as she continued. "You've just been so kind to me, and you just keep on blaming yourself for all this madness! You have unwavering loyalty, absolute kindness, and you sacrifice so much for not just me, but the whole family..."

 _"Lisa..."_ Lincoln thought in sympathy.

"And I feel so horrible for stabbing you," Lisa added, shedding a couple tears. "Yes, I was being controlled, but you still got sent of the hospital... because of me."

And as the little genius cried in Lincoln's chest, the boy brushed her hair and replied, in a reassuring tone, "It's okay, Lisa, everything's better now. And we need to focus on what's important right now: Stop Cristina from doing whatever plan she has and make her pay for what she did to us."

"Welly well weller, what a nice little reunion."

The duo turned around and saw a light appear on a pillar nearby, with Cristina above the pillar. However, unlike the other Cristinas, this one was wearing a cloak covering her body.

"So you finally show yourself, Cristina!" Lincoln stated as he and Lisa separated and got ready to attack. "What are you going to do now?!"

"Me? Nothing," the redhead answered. "This is an arena, and I'm an spectator. You three, on the other hand, are the gladiators."

"Wait, us three?" Lisa repeated. "But there are only two of us here!"

Cristina smirked. "That's what you think."

Another light appeared and shined upon the place with the glowing purple lights, revealing it was Ronnie Anne, restrained by chains, and wearing a white helmet with purple eyes.

"Ronnie Anne!" Lincoln and Lisa exclaimed, Lincoln in surprise, Lisa in fear.

Then, the girl tried to break free as, from her point of view, all she could see was Lincoln standing in fear while Cristina was right next to him, looking just as terrified. Foam came out of her mouth as she chanted "Kill Cristina... Save Lincoln..." repeatedly, growling more and more like a rabbid dog as the chains started to loosen.

"As you can see, I have given Ronnie a specific type of helmet," Cristina stated. "From her point of view, Lincoln is with me. And as long as she has the helmet, she'll want to kill Cristina, A.K.A, Lisa."

"So we just need to take off her helmet, huh?" Lincoln guessed.

"H-How are we supposed to do that?!" Lisa asked, sounding legitimately terrified.

And then, without warning, Ronnie broke free-taking the chains with her-and she ran towards Lisa as she lifted the chains and used them as whips. However, Lincoln grabbed Lisa and jumped away from Ronnie's attack before it connected. Once she realized this, however, she simply turned around and gave Lincoln and Lisa a furious look, with the boy returning the look as Lisa shivered in fear...

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"You may be wondering what I mean by corruption. You see, I've made a little research on what you could end up becoming if certain things were to happen," Cristina said before materializing a purple sword out of nowhere. "and one of those symptoms, is that you will grow smarter and will start to protect yourself so you can get away with whatever you want."

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about, honest!" Lynn replied, trying to get up.

Then the redhead put a foot on Lynn's chest and kept her on the ground. "Second symptom, you start to practice your lying so you can get better at convincing people you're telling the truth, except that nothing you're saying is remotely close to that," the redhead sharpened her blade and got ready to strike. "third symptom, you start to grow paranoid. Can you trust anybody? Can you trust your friends? Can you trust _yourself_? These questions, which cannot be answered, will drive you mad!"

Lynn swallowed her fears as she realized she was trapped. "And before you develop any other symptoms, I'll make sure to get rid of your life once and for all!" Cristina stated, fully ready to attack. "Say goodbye, Lynn Loud!"


	42. Attack on Cristina

_Back with Lisa, Lincoln and Ronnie..._

The boy and girl with glasses dodged another one of Ronnie's attacks, which consisted of swinging her chains like they were whips all around the battlefield in hopes of hitting something.

"I don't get it, Ronnie is usually smarter than this," Lincoln remarked, catching Lisa's attention. "Why is she just swinging her chains repeatedly?"

"She's trying to get me, Lincoln!" Lisa stated. "As long as she has the helmet, she'll think I'm Cristina, and as long as she thinks that, she'll attack us!"

And then the little genius freed herself from Lincoln's grasp and ran around Ronnie. "Lisa, what are you doing?!" Lincoln exclaimed.

"I'll distract her for now!" Lisa shouted, dodging Ronnie's incoming attacks. "You go behind her and-"

Without warning, Lisa was struck by one of Ronnie's attacks, sending her straight to beyond the arena. Luckily for her, Cristina pressed a button and raised electrified walls around the arena's edges, saving Lisa from falling to the abyss but electrocuting her in the process.

"Hey, what gives?!" Lincoln complained at the redhead.

Cristina chuckled. "Well, at least your sister's okay."

Lisa got back up and grabbed her arm as she caught her breath. Ronnie, meanwhile, got on all four and rushed straight for Lisa, only for the scientist to jump away and make Ronnie crash into the electrified wall, howling in pain as she was electrocuted. Unluckily for Lincoln and Lisa, Ronnie recovered almost immediately and got ready to rush again.

However, just as the tomboy ran straight for Lisa, Lincoln leaped for her and grabbed her by the helmet, somehow managing to hold back the enraged tomboy and letting Lisa go to her back.

"Ronnie Anne, I know you're in there!" Lincoln told the brainwashed girl. "Don't let this hallucination control you! There's no need to fight Lisa, I'm safe for now!"

But then, as Lisa tampered with the helmet, Ronnie started to whimper and sound like her normal self. "No... You're not safe... you'll never be safe..." Ronnie answered, shedding tears. "If it's not your sisters... If it's not Cristina... Then somebody will take you away from me. They'll torture you. They'll demean you. They'll force you to do as they say..."

"You should know by now that what you're saying isn't the real world," Lincoln replied in a kind, reassuring tone. "We control our own lives. Our own destinies. Even if people create fiction where they make us do the most horrible things imaginable, those are simply fiction. They're not reality."

And then, Lisa managed to turn off the helmet and take it off, revealing Ronnie's face was partially scarred with what looked like whip wounds. Once she could finally look at Lincoln with her own eyes, the tomboy and the white-haired boy exchanged a hug as Lisa forced a smile.

"Oh geez, could you be any more cheesy?" Cristina remarked as she flew to the arena and hovered right above the trio. "How about you tell us the real reason right now?"

"Real reason regarding what?" Lincoln asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Why aren't you like us? Why aren't you disturbed by the content of what you see?" Cristina asked, her tone growing more vicious as she snapped, "Why aren't you disgusted at the people who created those travesties! Why don't you want them to pay for what they've done!? Why, do you act, like I'm the bad guy!?"

"Because you're far worse than anything I've ever seen, Cristina!" Lincoln snapped, separating from Ronnie and flipping the bird to the redhead. "You forced my sisters to change against their will! You forced them to become lesbians! You created friendship bracelets that made them change! And worst of all, you not only brought Ronnie Anne and Bobby into this mess, but you hurt Ronnie and forced her to fight us! No matter what you say about Rule 34 or whatever, you're worst than all of that stuff!"

The redhead, however, simply chuckled. "Do you really think it's just the 34 business that disturbed me?" she scoffed as she slowly lowered herself to the arena. "There's another important factor, that's kinda united to Rule 34: Shipping. The forced union between characters."

"Shipping?" Lincoln repeated in utter disbelief.

"The shippers, alongside creating that disgusting Rule 34 art, force certain people to get together regardless of how canonity works," Cristina added, folding her arms. "Don't you see? All that's happened so far has been because of shipping! I've shown you what shippers do to your sisters on a daily basis! Your sisters will see that in a moment. But even after you've seen this... you still only defy me? Why?"

"The shippers didn't force my sisters to change, you did," Lincoln muttered, walking closer to the redhead. "Shippers didn't create technology designed to brainwash them, you did! And most importantly, shippers didn't force my whole family to go through all of this mess just to drive a point home!"

Once he was close enough to Cristina, Lincoln spat right at her face, "You did!"

Without warning, Cristina kneed Lincoln in the groin and then punched him hard enough to send him flying straight into the electrified wall, wherein he bounced back into the arena. "Lincoln!" Lisa and Ronnie exclaimed as they ran to his side.

"It has become clear to me that you can no longer be reasoned with," Cristina stated.

"Look who's talking!" Lisa snarled.

And then Cristina took out a pair of energy blades, one red and one pink, which she showed to the trio before taking off her cloak. This revealed she was wearing a blue armor with golden highlights that covered her limbs:

"If you won't understand by choice, you will understand by force!"

 _Meanwhile, with Lola and Lana..._

The twins backed away in fear from the grinning Cristina and Lynn. "W-What do we do now?!" Lola asked to her twin, too terrified to think of anything.

"I don't really know, Lola," Lana answered, tightenineg her grip on her twin sister's hand. "I honestly didn't see this coming..."

And then a large wall rose from ground of roses-get it?-and cornered the twins with the demented Lynn and Cristina. "Lola, if this is the end, I have to tell you what happened to me!" Lola exclaimed, hugging her twin. "Cristina did it! She captured me! She forced me to see how badly I've been treating, and how much worse people made me act, but that wasn't all..."

"What else did she do?" Lana asked, returning the hug.

"She... She strapped me to a bed..." Lola weakly started, clearly hesitant to go any further. "Then... She grabbed some scissors, and some other objects... She s... Sew shut my crotch... And-And then, with the other objects... She shoved them up there, despite sewing it shut! And-And then, she cut-"

Lana separated from Lola and covered her mouth with her hand. "Don't say anything else," Lana replied, her eyes obscured by her cap. "I think I get it."

And with that said, Lana turned to the demonic-looking girls and gave them the "come at me" gesture before flashing a determined glare. This, however, did nothing but make Lynn leap straight for Lana... who simply dodged Lynn, only for Lynn to leap again and pin her to the ground.

Then, Lynn leaned closer to Lana and licked her cheek as she groped her crotch and chest, no doubt giving Lana some bad memories of the beach fiasco. However, now being one to let someone grope her again, Lana punched Lynn away, and when she tried to leap towards her again, Lana grabbed her arm, then pinned her down while Cristina... just watched. Typical.

Then, the girl twisted Lynn's arm until it came out the other way, but the girl didn't even flinch, she just continued to try and break free of Lana's grasp. Not only that, the arm itself felt oddly artificial.

"L-Lana, w-what are you do-" Lola remarked.

And then Lana snapped Lynn's neck, followed by the girl exploding and... nothing else. No gore, no guts, she just exploded into light.

"That wasn't the real Lynn," Lana stated before turning to Cristina. "That was just a cheap copy!"

Cristina backed away as Lana cracked her knuckles. "What did you do to the original?!" Lana snapped, leaping and pinning "Cristina" to the ground. "Where is she?!"

"You should know already: she's on her gauntlet with Lucy," Cristina answered, her tone becoming a bit bitter when she mentioned the goth. "If you want to see her again, then would you kindly leave your sis alone and go to Lynn?"

Lana flinched as pink electricity circled around her head, only to immediately return to normal before spatting, "Nice try. I don't know what you did, but it's not going to work!" Lana vehemently proclaimed. "Now tell me, where can I find Lynn?"

"A-And more importantly!" Lola blurted as she meekly approached the redhead. "How did you manage to pay for this entire place?"

Cristina flashed a glare at Lola, who flinched and immediately hid behind Lana. Then, without warning, Cristina kneed Lana in the crotch and then kicked the twins hard enough to send them flying to a tree. "Something tells me we should've brought jock straps to this place," Lana remarked, grabbing her crotch in pain.

"I had a little help from a person who used to be a giant pain in my ass," Cristina answered as she got up and dusted herself. "And, just in case you're wondering how I got them to agree with them..."

Suddenly, the room started to glitch, with Lola noticing just as Cristina added:

"Rich vegetables don't argue."

The room revealed it's true, disturbingly graphic self: It wasn't a large forest with pink flowers and tress, it was a large garden-like torture toom, with heads-on-pikes acting as the trees while the flowers were the protruding heads of lobotomized people, with Tetherby among the people. Once she saw this, Lola covered her mouth and tried her hardest not to faint, while Lana noticed soon afterwards.

"Wait, this is where we've been all along?!" Lana asked, taking a look around before giving Cristina an utterly disgusted look. "What the heck is wrong with you?!"

"Nothing, compared to what will be wrong with you if I do nothing about it," Cristina answered, crossing her arms. "But I will do something about your potential corruption..."

And then the girl materialized two purple blades out of nowhere. "I'm going to kill you!"

The twins flinched at the statement, but while Lola cowered behind Lana, the tomboy flipped her baseball cap and stood her ground, even if she made it very clear she was just as scared as Lola.

 _Meanwhile, with Lynn and Lucy..._

Lucy watched and cringed as Lynn was used as a ball by Cristina, right before kicking her into the goalpost. And going by the score above, she had done this three times before. And as Crisina cheered and celebrated for herself, Lynn got back up and caught her breath as a voice spoke to Lucy:

 _"Lucy! Can you hear me?"_

However, it wasn't long before the goth noticed something peculiar about the voice: It actually sounded helpful, like an actual ally.

 _"Listen, I'm not sure how much longer Lynn will be able to survive against Cristina. But don't worry, I know how to help you help Lynn. First, you must head to a patch of grass covered in bushes."_

Though her past experience with the voice was ambiguous at best, Lucy decided to trust this particular voice. After all, what else could she do? So she followed the voice's instruction and went to the grass covered in bushes while Cristina and Lynn decided to talk.

"You're a resillient jerk, I'll give you that," Cristina said as she rubbed her arms. "I bet you had some time to reinforce your defenses before you came here."

"Hey, I'm an athlete, I'm used to getting a lot of injuries," Lynn answered, dusting herself. "In fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't get all that damaged from what you did to me."

Cristina, however, very clearly saw through Lynn's bluffing. "I punched you into the sky, kicked back you into the ground, and then kicked you like a ball straight for the goalpost," she stated.

One short pause later, Lynn answered, "Okay, so you probably hurt me a little, but-"

Without warning, Cristina ran to Lynn and, unsurprisingly enough, kicked her in the crotch. Once Lucy saw that, she searched through the bushes and found a sword stuck in a rock. "This seems familiar," Lucy remarked before the voice said:

 _"Now take out the sword from the rock!"_

So the goth cracked her fingers, grabbed the sword and pulled... and it didn't even budge. "This might be harder than I thought," she remarked.

Back with Cristina and Lynn, the redhead waited for the athlete to grab her crotch and wince in pain. However, when Lynn's frown slowly turned into a smile, Cristina backed away a little. She only backed away further as Lynn started to laugh.

"Why-Why aren't you wincing in pain?" Cristina asked, sounding legitimately horrified.

"I figured you were going to pull off the old "kick in the groin" trick, so I equipped myself with a jockstrap!" Lynn revealed as Cristina backed away. "Now, no matter how many attacks to the groin I get, you won't hurt me at all! Ahahaha!"

"Why you little, cheating-" the redhead hissed, right before realizing something. "Wait, did you say you were using a jockstrap?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Lynn asked.

One pause later, Cristina confessed, "I thought a jockstrap was a crotch-protecting equipment used only be males."

The athlete blushed and responded, "I-It's gender-neutral crotch-protecting equipment!"

"No, I'm sure it's supposed to be male-only," the redhead replied, crossing her arms. "Are you-"

"I'm immune-somewhat-to your crotch attacks!" Lynn proclaimed. "That's the point!"

"Well then, I guess you have grown too wise for my own good," the redhead stated. "It's clear now: your corruption has begun."

Lynn raised a eyebrow right before Cristina dashed to her, lifted and then threw her into the ground.

"You may be wondering what I mean by corruption. You see, I've made a little research on what you could end up becoming if certain things were to happen," Cristina said before materializing a purple sword out of nowhere. "and one of those symptoms, is that you will grow smarter and will start to protect yourself so you can get away with whatever you want."

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about, honest!" Lynn replied, trying to get up.

Then the redhead put a foot on Lynn's chest and kept her on the ground. "Second symptom, you start to practice your lying so you can get better at convincing people you're telling the truth, except that nothing you're saying is remotely close to that," the redhead sharpened her blade and got ready to strike. "third symptom, you start to grow paranoid. Can you trust anybody? Can you trust your friends? Can you trust _yourself_? These questions, which cannot be answered, will drive you mad!"

Lynn swallowed her fears as she realized she was trapped. "And before you develop any other symptoms, I'll make sure to get rid of your life once and for all!" Cristina stated, fully ready to attack. "Say goodbye, Lynn Loud!"

But just before Lynn was stabbed, Lucy came in, seemingly slashed at Cristina using her sword... and the redhead was horizontally cut in half, with the top of the body dropping soon afterwards. The athlete promptly crawled away as fast as she could before reuniting with Lucy.

"Holy crap, Lucy, why did you do that?!" Lynn exclaimed as she got up.

"She was going to kill you, so I killed her first," Lucy answered. "Besides, she had it coming."

"You cut her in half!" Lynn pointed out.

This barely fazed the goth. "Again, she had it coming."

The sliced corpse rot into light and a new door materialized, which apparently lead to one of the other gauntlets. So Lucy and Lynn went to the door, and grabbed the doorknob...

 _Meanwhile, back at the maze..._

Luna and Luan continued to roam around the maze, looking for a way to the exit. And while their search continued to be fruitless, Luan at least soon got some company in the form of a voice:

 _"Luan, can you hear me?"_

This voice sounded... exhausted. Almost as if it had grown tired of all the events up to this point. Can't say Luan blamed her.

 _"You must continue going up, then you'll see two ways to go: left and right. Go to the left, then go to the right. The left path contains something you're going to need in order to get out of here."_

With that said, Luan nodded and followed the instructions presented by the voice.

Meanwhile, Luna looked around the maze for some sign that she was going the right way. Sadly, she didn't even get a voice companion to tell her whether what she was doing was right or wrong. However, she did get something... an intense desire to follow a singing voice. A female singing voice. So, not really thinking about it-to the point it seemed like she was being forced to do it-she started to follow the singing voice.

Back with Luan, the girl soon found the two paths the voice was talking about, and remembered to take the left path. However, beyond a long hallway that ended with a treasure chest, there was another element that bombarded Luan as she walked to the object in question. Puns.

 _"What do you call a bell that sounds like a cow? A cowbell!"_

 _"My brother makes more clogs than a dutch shoe factory!"_

 _"Lincoln seems to lack confidence in doing anything, but personally, I think he Lin-could do anything!"_

The comedian winced at the last pun. Even she had her limits, it seemed. That, or it was her left cheek acting up, which started to glow while some blood came out of her mouth. So she continued to run towards the treasure chest, as more puns came up:

 _"Someone asked me if corpses could feel anything. I just answered: Of corpse not!"_

 _"I once went to a large party. It was nice, though the only other people there were corpses!"_

 _"I got a birthday present from death itself. It was a shorter lifespan!"_

This suddenly got morbid. Luckily, though, Luan reached the treasure chest just as she more blood came out of her mouth. So she crouched down, opened the treasure chest and leaned closer to the content...

Back with Luna, the girl continued to follow the singing voice, with her eyes turning into hearts as she saw the source of the singing voice: a person. This person took the form of Luan, who continued to sing as Luna interlocked fingers with her and leaned closer to her face.

In reality, however, who she was approaching was Cristina-yes, with the black and red dress-who smirked as the two got ready to kiss. Just as the two were about to kiss, however, a massive Mr. Coconut-like puppet came out of nowhere and punched her into the abyss, causing Luna to return back to normal.

She then turned around and saw the one who used the puppet was Luan, whose bleeding mouth stopped... well, bleeding. "Love!" Luna exclaimed as she ran to Luan, who slowly put down the puppet as she caught her breath. "What happened?! Are you okay?!"

"Yes, I'm fine," Luan answered, grabbing Luna's cheek. "Are you?"

The musician just nodded and grabbed Luan's cheek as a door materialized in their area. So they went to it, opened the door and went inside... only to land in Lori's gauntlet, right in the middle of Lori's fight with Carol. Then they dodged an incoming, flying Lori, who crashed into a wall.

So, of course, the duo immediately went to Lori and helped her get back up.

"Lori!" Luan said, catching her sister's attention. "What's going on?"

"Remember how Carol revealed I was Storge?" Lori replied, earning a nod from her sisters. "Well, now I have to fight her in order to fully become Storge. And she's pretty much kicking my ass right now."

And then Carol, who now took the form of Leni, crash landed next to the sisters-in front of them actually-and gave them a glare. Luna, Luan and Lori got up and stood their ground, ready to fight... only for Carol to suddenly turn back to normal. Needless to say, the woman was just as confused as the sisters.

"W-Wait, what's going on?" Carol asked before trying, and failing, to shape-shift again. "Why can't I shape-shift anymore?!"

"I can answer that."

And then everybody turned around and saw Cristina in a large monitor.

"You again!" Luan bitterly said as she prepared her puppet.

"Cristina, you told me that I was going to keep my shape-shifting powers until Lori beat me!" Carol complained. "Why did I suddenly lose the ability to do that?!"

"Well, I figured that if I was going to get rid of one of my expendable subordinates, it would make more sense to keep the one who I can control more easily," the redhead explained, flipping her hair. "I mean, I could've gotten rid of Lori too, but I still have a job for her."

And in that moment, Carol realized something:

"Wait, who's this subordinate you're talking about? You're getting rid of me, and you're keeping Lori, so who is it?"

Cristina simply smirked as, at Leni's gauntlet, the Cristina torturing Leni suddenly had her head busted by the teenager, who was shrouded in the shadows as she flashed a diabolical grin...

 _Back with Lincoln, Lisa, Ronnie and Cristina..._

The trio fought against the redhead as she swung her blades all over the place. More specifically, Lincoln and Ronnie fought Cristina, while Lisa remained at the sidelines and tried to find a way to fight back and defeat Cristina.

"You're surprisingly good at dodging her attacks," Lincoln told Ronnie, right before dodging yet another attack from the redhead.

"Trust me, I wish I was able to fight back somehow," Ronnie replied.

"Stop dodging and stay still!" Cristina demanded, clearly starting to grow tired from all the dodging.

Eventually, the redhead stopped swinging her swords when it became clear the duo would do nothing but dodge all of her attacks. Not that she could continue anyway, since her arms started to cramp from over-swinging.

"Just to clarify, I'm not stopping because I've realized that you'll dodge everything I throw at you!" Cristina stated, earning looks from Lincoln and Ronnie. "I'm stopping 'cause my arms hurt like hell from all the swinging! Let's take a break."

The duo nodded in agreement and then returned to Lisa. "Did you manage to find anything we could use?" Ronnie inquired.

"All I could find, besides the fact that she seems to have an easier time using her left hand to wave that sword, is that this doesn't seem to be the real Cristina," Lisa answered, glancing at the redhead as she explained. "I never saw her discharge some electricity to stabilize her organs, nor do I see her suffer side-effects from refraining from doing that. Indeed, it seems almost as if she was back to normal, but that should be impossible."

"Sounds plausible, somewhat," Ronnie remarked. "Cristina's got a whole load of resources thanks to Tetherby, so she probably managed to make some copies of herself to make sure she herself wouldn't end up killed."

"Lord Tetherby? Round, white-haired, an insufferable jerk?" Lincoln inquired, earning a nod from the tomboy. "How did Cristina convince him to help her?"

Ronnie winced as she answered: "Rich vegetables don't argue."

Lisa and Lincoln winced shortly afterwards. And, with nothing else to do, the trio turned back to Cristina. "So, you decided you want to give up?" the redhead smugly asked, crossing her arms. "I can still leave you alone if you just plead for it."

"Cristina, where exactly are you?" Lincoln asked the redhead. "Lisa says you're not the real one, and since we have no other options, I figured talking with you could give us some hint."

The girl flinched and looked all over. "O-Oh... S-So you figured out I'm n-not the real Cristina?" she asked, twiddling her fingers. And then she spat, "N-Nevermind! I'm not telling you where the real one is! Ever!"

Ronnie and Lincoln exchanged looks.

 _Meanwhile, with the twins..._

Lana fought Cristina in the middle of the "garden" while Lola looked for some weapon to throw at her twin, so the fight wouldn't be nearly as unfair as it currently was. Surprisingly enough, weapons are hard to come by in a garden full of lobotomized people.

"Lola, I would greatly appreciate it if you gave me a weapon!" Lana exclaimed, growing tired of all the dodging.

"Hey, you try to find a weapon among a garden of vegetables!" Lola complained in return, right before spotting and grabbing a baseball bat, which was resting next to a vegetable who had his head open. "Catch!"

Lola threw the baseball bat to Lana, who caught it, got ready to use it... and saw in shock as Crisina simply slashed it to bits. "Did you really think that would help with laser swords?" Cristina argued.

"Yeah, in hindsight, this was a bad idea," Lana replied, giving her sister an angry look.

Then, the tomboy dodged another attack, kicked Cristina's arm and took advantage of her flinching to snatch one of her laser blades away. And as the duo fought with their laser blades, Lola turned around and saw Lynn and Lucy arrive. "Lynn! Lucy!" Lola exclaimed as she ran to the girls before hugging Lynn. "You're here!"

"Well, this just got awkward," Lynn remarked.

"Lana needs your help!" Lola exclaimed, separating from the athlete. "She likes you and actually finds you tolerable, maybe you two together can fight back against Cristina!"

"Cristina? But Lucy-" Lynn stammered once she saw Cristina and Lana fighting in the background. "-killed her... wait, what's going on?!"

"What do you mean Lucy killed her?" Lola inquired.

"We faced Cristina in a large stadium, and just before she struck Lynn, I took out a sword from a nearby rock and slashed her in half with it," Lucy explained in her usual stoic tone. "However, it seems to have been an illusion, just like this one. Perhaps, though, we can do something about her..."

And as the trio discussed their battle plan, Lana continued to fight Cristina, although it became very clear very fast that she was losing ground. It wasn't long before Cristina managed to pin Lana on the ground and kick her sword away. "Do you remember this scenario, Lana?" Cristina inquired, narrowing her eyes.

"Not really, no!" Lana spat.

The redhead saved her sword on her pocket and leaned closer to the tomboy. "Maybe this will refresh your mind," the redhead said, before leaning closer to Lana's ear and whispering, "And your nightmares."

Without warning, Cristina grabbed Lana's crotch and images of her and Lynn's... "intimate" moment back at the beach flowed in her mind. Needless to say, Lana tried to free herself as soon as possible. It was one thing to get molested by her own sister, but it was another one entirely to be molested by the girl who's responsible for all this madness.

Luckily, though, Lynn kicked Cristina away soon afterwards, and soon enough, Lola and Lucy reunited with the duo. "Are you okay, Lana?!" Lola asked, running to her sister.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lana answered as she got up, then clung to Lynn's arm. "How about you?"

Just before Lola could answer, Cristina teleported behind her and shoved her fist right up her crotch. And amongst the shock and crying of Lola were the horrified-and quite frankly disgusted-looks of her sisters as Cristina grinned like a maniac. Then she lifted her as if she was a puppet... and had trouble keeping her up.

"So, Lola, how do you feel about this situation?" Cristina asked Lola as if she was starting a comedy routine.

"This is really disturbing!" Cristina made Lola say, somehow moving her mouth from the inside. "You're one sick, crazy bitch!"

"Aw, thanks Lola, I love you too!" the redhead replied, blushing and grabbing her cheek. And then she bowed and curtsied. "Thank you! I'll be here all night!"

Cristina followed this by looking at the remaining sisters, who were quite justifiably pissed at her.

"I bet you would like to know how I feel about this situation: my fist is stuck inside Lola, who has essentially become my personal hand puppet," the redhead remarked as Lana grew progressively angrier. "Let's just say, I got the _upper hand_ in this. Hahaha, get it?"

And then Lana snatched Lucy's sword and struck Cristina with it, cutting her head off.

"Leave my sister alone, you freak!" Lana hissed as Cristina dematerialized.

With the fist now gone from her insides, Lola curled up into a fetal position and cried to herself as a door materialized. Shortly after this happened, a creaking sound was heard from the ceiling, which had been ignored up to this point. Up above was a pair of coccoons, which fell off the ceiling and hit the ground.

From the coccoons came out Mr. and Mrs. Loud, who immediately gasped for air as the quartet went to them. Or in Lola's case, crawled to them. "Mom! Dad!" Lynn exclaimed as she and Lucy helped the duo get up. "What were you doing inside those things?"

"We don't know, all we know is that our room was filled with knock-out gas and... that's it," Mr. Loud explained.

"We can discuss this later, we need to move on," Lucy said.

Lana grabbed her, helped her get up, and the quartet-alongside the parents-got up and went through the door... only to arrive at Lincoln and Lisa's gauntlet, where the boy, tomboy and Lisa had Cristina tied to a chair.

"Another Cristina?!" Lynn exclaimed in exasperation, catching her brother, sister and Ronnie's attention.

 _Meanwhile, with Carol, Lori, Luan and Luna..._

The quartet looked around as Leni's demented laughter echoed across the gauntlet, with Cristina's smile growing wider as the laughter grew louder and louder. And then, it stopped... only for Leni to break through the ground and landing at the ground nearby.

"L-Leni?" Lori asked, taking a step back.

Leni, who at this point looked like a corpse laying on the ground, slowly and in a stiff manner, got up and stretched, moaning as she felt her limbs moving after so long. And seeing that it actually hadn't been that long since her torture, that was saying something. Then, after briefly catching her breath, she snapped to Lori and said:

"Lo... Ri..."

"Y-Yes, Lori, t-that's me!" the teenager replied, trying to keep her cool.

"Junior, you should better get out of here while you still can," Carol instructed, shivering in fear. "I don't think this girl you call Leni is as friendly as you think she is."

"Actually, she, Luna and Luan can stay here as much as they want," Cristina answered. "The one who should escape is _you_ , Carol."

And then the redhead turned to the teenager, and gave her a simple order: "Leni, kill Carol."

Leni snapped at Cristina, flashed a smirk, and then leaped straight for the monitor, which she promptly ripped off the ceiling and then used it to crush Carol, all while her sisters could only watch in horror. And then she turned to them and firmly stared at them as she said the next:

"You don't need to feel bad about her, she wasn't the real deal anyway. The real deal is somewhere else. Somewhere that you can't reach from her."

Then she pointed at her torture room... which was basically just a couple rooms over. "If you wish to stand a chance against me, you'll have to go through the same thing I did. Or just find the Ghoul syrum, that could work too."

Without warning, she seemingly teleported to the trio and morphed her right arm into a gigantic, red mutated version of itself. "As for how you'll get there, allow me to save you the trouble."

She gave the trio the mother of all bitch slaps, and sent them straight to the torture room, right before leaping to a wall and climbing it up. Then, once the trio managed to recover from the attack, they got up and went to the torture room. "Come on, we need to find that ghoul syrum Leni was talking about!" Lori stated, with Luna and Luan nodding in agreement.

 _Back at Lisa and Lincoln's gauntlet..._

The Louds that were present-and Ronnie-gathered around Cristina as the redhead's hair shadowed her eyes. "Okay, now tell us, where's the real Cristina?" Lincoln inquired.

The redhead refused to respond.

"Cristina, staying silent will no longer help you!" Lincoln snapped, slapping the girl. "Spill the beans and tell us where you are!"

Cristina promptly chuckled.

"You want to know where I am..." the redhead remarked. "Well then..."

The redhead snapped the ropes tying her and grabbed Lincoln, right before flying high enough to be beyond anybody's reach. And once Lincoln realized where he was, he tried to stay calm as Cristina shouted the next.

"How about I take you there instead?!"

With that said, the redhead took Lincoln into the wall-no, really-and soon afterwards, everybody saw Leni climbing up the wall. Once she was high enough, the teenager leaped straight into the platform, where she landed a couple feet away from her family, who she flashed a malicious, demented glare.

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Whatever truth Cristina showed you, or you were told about, was nothing more than the results of her research," Leni answered before throwing Lana back at Lola. "The complete truth, however, holds all you need to know. And most importantly, it holds the knowledge of why Cristina is as nuts as she currently is."

"Well, I definitely would like to know about that!" Lana said. "Okay, but how will you help us get there?"


	43. Revelations II: The Revealening

**So, since I kind of forgot to explain myself last time, the whole story is actually already complete, and I'm going to update it on a daily basis in order to end it soon. Because let's be honest, unlike "Requiem for a Loud", this story has already run it's course and it's time for it to end.**

 **Besides, the final battle is going to be quite a doozy. Or at least, I hope it is. And don't worry, I'll thank everybody for their assistance, but first things first: Put this story to rest.**

 **So, without further ado, let's move on to the story!**

* * *

The family-and Ronnie Anne-stood in place, disturbed and shocked at the sight they were looking at: Leni Loud, with a mutated right arm, looking at them with a smirk. However, once she got up and stretched, she turned her arm back to normal, and just continued to stare at the group.

It's almost like she wasn't in the mood to hurt them yet.

"L-Leni... Is that you?" Mrs. Loud asked.

"Yes, it is me," Leni answered in a calm, almost serene, tone of voice. "I bet you were expecting to see a normal Leni, and not a Leni with a mutant arm."

"Well, to be honest-" Lynn remarked.

Leni seemingly teleported straight to the athlete and flashed her a vicious smirk. "Do not speak unless spoken to," Leni stated.

Without warning, Leni kicked Lynn straight into the electrified walls, and watched with a smile as Lynn was electrocuted and then promptly thrown into the ground. "Leni, why did you do that?!" Lucy asked as she went to the sports fan's side.

"Lynn is such a rude little brat, she desperately needs to be taught how to act properly," the teenager answered, before snapping a glare at her parents. "And since these two don't know a thing about discipline, it's up to me to put order in the Loud House."

"Alright Leni, stop acting like this!" Mrs. Loud ordered, heading towards the teenager. "We don't have time to-"

Suddenly, Leni grabbed Mrs. Loud's arm and held it tightly while maintaining a furious glare at her mother. A furious glare that stood frozen in her face as she slowly crushed the woman's arm. "You have been usurped, mother," Leni stated in a cold, uncaring tone. "You're no longer the one calling the shots."

And then Leni threw both her mother and her father at the electrified walls, and flashed a malicious smirk at her siblings as the adults were electrocuted. Luckily, though, they survived.

"Y-You're not the Leni we know and love!" Lana exclaimed as Lola hid behind her. "What did you do to her?!"

"I allowed her to get the day off after a certain bird strapped to a chair, took out a bunch of painful things, and begun torturing her for what felt like an hour!" Leni stated, stomping the ground to get her sisters to shut up. "Granted, it was probably just five or ten minutes, but you get the idea!"

Lana charged straight for Leni and tried to attack... Only for the teenager to simply grab and lift her. "I'm not going to hurt you," Leni stated, making Lana calm down. Somewhat. "In fact, I'm going to help you."

"Wait, what?" Mr. Loud asked.

"There's a door around here. I can sense it," Leni answered, turning to a particular wall. "If you go through that door, you'll be able to advance further through the tower, and not only that, you will also be able to find the complete truth."

"T-The _complete_ truth?!" Lola exclaimed, backing away in shock.

"Whatever truth Cristina showed you, or you were told about, was nothing more than the results of her research," Leni answered before throwing Lana back at Lola. "The complete truth, however, holds all you need to know. And most importantly, it holds the knowledge of why Cristina is as nuts as she currently is."

"Well, I definitely would like to know about that!" Lana said. "Okay, but how will you help us get there?"

Leni got a smile, and before they knew it, the parents, Lynn, Lucy, Lana and Lola were kicked above the electrified walls and crashed through the door, right before Leni jumped high enough to escape the arena and land right in front of the entrance.

"Did you really have to kick us all the way here!?" Lana complained.

"Notice the large, electrified walls surrounding the arena," Leni answered, pointing at the electrified walls.

And then, the lights turned on, revealing the interior of the room had a table, a large monitor in the middle, and five chairs, with three of them spinning around to reveal the people sitting on them were Carol Pingrey, Bobby, and Mrs. Johnson.

"Greetings, Louds," Mrs. Johnson greeted. "We were expecting you."

 _Meanwhile, with Lincoln..._

The boy was currently fast asleep, curled up in a fetal position, naked, in the middle of a black void. But just as she felt the cold shivers of nothingness climb up his spine, he heard a voice:

 _"Lincoln, wake up sweetie..."_

But the boy got no desire to wake up. In fact, the voice sounded slightly menacing, giving him further reason to remain asleep.

 _"Lincoln, wake up, my dear cinnamon roll..."_

Even with what sounded like Leni called to him, Lincoln knew better than to wake up. Whoever was calling him couldn't possibly be his friend, or even somebody he knew, so maybe it would be better if he remained asleep?

 _"Lincoln, wake the fuck up!"_

The boy sprung open... And saw he was not only naked in the middle of an unknown room, and not only did he have his hands tied behind his back, but Cristina was nearby, stretching herself while wearing a white dress... And seemingly nothing else.

"Cristina, I had the feeling you had something to do with this!" Lincoln exclaimed, trying to break free. "Where am I?! Why am I naked?!"

The redhead just chuckled as she finished her exercises. With that done, she walked to Lincoln, got on top of him, and promptly landed right on top of his exposed... Junk. And what's worse, she started to grind against it as Lincoln realized a horrible fact:

Cristina was also naked besides the white dress.

"Lincoln, did you ever think about doing... "that" with a girl?" the redhead inquired, blushing as she leaned closer to Lincoln's face. "Did you ever had your first time with someone?"

"Of course not!" the boy shouted, causing the redhead to back away and clutch her chest. "That's not something I'm supposed to be having right now!"

After the shock from the shout passed, Cristina shook herself back to reality and grinded harder. "Well then, I'm going to make sure to change that!" she stated, licking her lips. "And guess what, once we're both totally into it, I'll transmit it to the rest of the tower, to let your family-and any other perverts in this place-watch as we consummate our first experience together!"

"I don't see how this has anything to do with your plan!" Lincoln stated.

"Nothing has anything to do with my plan anymore! Ever since you got the helmet, every single piece of my plans has been completely derailed! From who dated who to who hurt who, nothing came out the way I wanted it to!" Cristina snapped, lifting a little before preparing for the ensuing... Penetration. "And this time, there will be no derailing! No more fucking up my plans! The only ones, who will get fucked up, will be us!"

And then Cristina shoved Lincoln's junk right up her crotch, taking all of it's length in one swing.

Needless to say, Cristina soon found this to be a horrible idea. Not only did her crotch started to bleed, but she was frozen in place. She internally cried and caught her breath as she shed tears, all while Lincoln looked around uncomfortably.

"A-Are you okay?" the boy asked.

"Shut up!" Cristina snapped, leaning closer to Lincoln, but slowly so as to not make their current situation worse. "After everything I've done, after everything you've suffered, you should be enjoying the sight of me essentially ruining my insides, by shoving your horse dong into my vagina!"

"Horse dong? Oh come on, I'm nowhere near close to that long," Lincoln replied. "In fact, I'm pretty much just average sized."

The redhead's heart skipped a beat. Lincoln dong, which was essentially skewering her internal walls, was only average sized? If this was average sized, then what would be considered big sized?!

"I'm-I'm not going to think about it!" Cristina stated before slowly moving up and down, trying to get the hang of the thing. "I've come too far to back away now! Besides, if I'm going to come out here with my pussy destroyed, then I'll take your innocence and virginity along with it!"

And then, the redhead leaned forward once more and hissed, "Now be a good little fuckboy, and shut up and take it!"

Lincoln, however, remembered Lori's words:

 _You had Cristina in your clutches, you could have done anything you wanted to her... and all you do is kiss her? Do you really think that's going to help us figure out what's going on?_

And she was right. Last time, Lincoln did kiss Cristina, which basically lead to him getting a couple scars. But now, Cristina was basically raping him-though her stiff movement and the amount of tears she shed, and the pain she seemed to be taking, made it clear she was raping herself too-and this time, he had to do something about it.

To repeat the same mistake he did, while he was being raped... The boy was filled with anger, and determination.

So he broke the ropes tying his hands, then promptly flipped the roles around: Now Cristina was down on the bed, and he was on top.

"W-What are you doing?!" Cristina asked, looking around before shooting a glare at Lincoln. "G-G-Get back to your position!"

"I am in my position, and you're in yours, so quit your whining!" Lincoln demanded, shoving his junk all inside Cristina once again. "You forced my sisters to become lesbians, you brought Ronnie into this mess, you tried to force me and Ronnie to become a couple, and worst of all, you left me out so I'd watch all of that happen to them! And now, it's time for you to pay for what you've done!"

While initially scared, the redhead soon replaced her fear with condescending amusement. "I... I'd like to see you live up to your claims!" Cristina scoffed. "I bet you're just spitting empty threats!"

Lincoln just smirked. "Yeah, I bet you don't like sharing that habit," the boy joked, before grabbing Cristina's legs and lifting them. "But don't worry, I'm ready to live up to said threats!"

It was in that moment, that Cristina realized what was going to happen...

 _Back with the Loud team..._

Lana, Lola, Lynn and Lucy got up and dusted themselves while Leni, leaning against a wall, watched as her mother and father approached Mrs. Johnson, Bobby and Carol. She put particular focus on Carol, though she only raised an eyebrow instead of, like, freak out over the potential ghost.

"Mrs. Johnson?" Mrs. Loud asked, shaking hands with the redheaded woman. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, long story short, I have to show you something important about why Cristina is doing all of this, and give you an idea of what her endgame is," Mrs. Johnson answered, adjusting her glasses. "Besides, I needed to act as a guiding voice of sorts so some of your kids could get through this place alive."

And then, Carol noticed Leni was not only staring at her, but she had her arms folded behind her back. "W-What's wrong?" Carol asked.

"I remember smashing a monitor on top of you," Leni stated, narrowing her eyes.

"No, don't worry, you just smashed by hard light projection," Carol nervously clarified. "You see-"

"I don't care," Leni stated, looking away. "Just show them what they need to see."

"What? Oh right, the complete truth!" Bobby remarked before pressing a button, which made the large monitor start counting from 10. "You see, before Cristina was the psychopath you know and loath, she was actually a somewhat decent kid. Well-mannered, obedient, kinda shy but nothing too troublesome. However, all that changed with a particular video."

The monitor played a video about Cristina looking at Lincoln's video back at the "popular video fiasco," which all the sisters immediately recognized. "Oh hey, that was back when Lincoln made that embarrassing video to make it up for us!" Lana remarked. "But, what does this have to do with all Cristina's ever done?"

"Yeah, it's kinda weird that something as mundane as a simple video would turn somebody into a psychopath," Lynn said, crossing her arms.

"Well, shortly after the video went up, there was a rise of..." Carol explained, pausing as she tried to think of something up. "Cristincoln? Lincina? Was a combined ship name ever agreed on?"

"Stay focused, please," Mrs. Johnson requested. "There was a rise of people who believed that Cristina and Lincoln made a cute couple. Cristina calls them "they" but in your case, you might know them as... "Shippers."

The sisters... Weren't particularly surprised by this revelation. "When I hear shipping, I expect to find something related to boats, not relationships," Lucy spoke with a shrug.

"Well, in this case, let's just say some people-" Carol remarked.

"Quit losing focus and move on!" Leni barked.

"Right, we don't have all day," Mrs. Johnson said as she lightly hit herself in the head.

So the video was changed to one showing Crisitna in her research... which went forth until night. "So, curious about what shipping was, Cristina decided to do a little research, but shipping wasn't the only thing she researched. She also researched some... unsavory kinks these shippers had."

"What, exactly?" Lisa inquired, tilting her head.

Mrs. Johnson, Bobby and Carol exchanged worried looks before Mrs. Johnson handed the list Cristina used to the siblings, who immediately winced in both disgust and shock.

"What made her think searching this was a good idea?!" Ronnie shouted. "I mean, I know kids sometime don't know what they're doing, but come on now!"

"And worst of all, it doesn't end there," Bobby said as the next video played, which-at the moment-consisted of a shivering Cristina walking at the school hallways. "A couple days after she made her research... This happened."

Cristina continued to walk, trying to avoid coming into eye contact with any of the nearby students. That is, until she came across a particular friend of hers: Ronnie Anne. "R-Ronnie..." Cristina meekly stated, catching the tomboy's attention.

"Hi Tina, I was wonde-" Ronnie turned around and changed her tone from friendly to concerned once she saw the redhead's shivering. "Whoa, what happened to you?"

"N-Nothing... I just... Researched something overnight..." the redhead answered, right before changing the topic. "A-Are you... Dating Lincoln?"

The tomboy flinched, and looked everywhere before whispering to the girl's ear, "How would you react if I said yes?"

The redhead stopped shivering and looked at the ground with a look of... Well, the look really couldn't be described. Was she surprised? Angry? Worried? Happy? The look was too "neutral" to really qualify as any of those things. Her expression soon changed, however, into one that looked legitimately happy.

"I'm glad. Are you happy? I think he's happy," the redhead answered. "He's over there, waving at you."

The duo turned around and, lo and behold, Lincoln really was nearby, waving hello at Ronnie Anne. And as the tomboy returned the waving, Cristina glanced at the two with a smile, though the smile looked rather... Malicious for some reason. And then she spotted another peculiar sight: The quartet of shippers that got her to research the stuff in the first place.

"Wait here, I'll be back in a moment," Cristina told the tomboy as she walked to the quartet. "Hey, you four."

The quartet immediately turned to Cristina and, recognizing her from before, flashed pleased smiles.

"Listen up, Ronnie and Lincoln are dating, I believe it would be better if you focused on what is happening right now, and stop thinking that Lincoln and I will get together. Heck, he probably doesn't even remember me anymore," the redhead told the quartet, growing more somber as she went on before sternly adding. "So how about you stop shipping me and Lincoln, and start shipping Ronnie and Lincoln? At least you're not going to be shipping something impossible."

The four shippers's smiles soon turned into frowns as they themselves became hostile to the girl. "And what makes you think you can just come here and tell ys what to ship?!" the primary shipper growled.

"L-Look, I'm just saying that I think you're going after the wrong couple," the redhead answered, backing away into a locker. "Ronnie and Lincoln have a far better chance of becoming an item than he and I do."

"Do you really think we care about that?" one of the shippers asked. "We want you and and Lincoln to look happy and be a couple, even if we have to make it ourselves!"

"And I want you to focus on what is real and stop focusing on a stupid little fantasy!" Cristina snapped.

A short silence passed... And while Lincoln and Ronnie engaged in a little friendly chat, Cristina's agonizing screech echoed across the school, which soon caught Ronnie's attention. "Talk to you later, Lame-O, I have to go help someone!" Ronnie stated as she ran towards the screeches.

And then, once she found the redhead, she was pinned to a wall and crying as the main shipper constantly kicked and punched her in the crotch, which started to bleed as the kicks and punches got faster. The Louds and even Ronnie herself notably winced at the sight.

"Hey, leave her alone!" Ronnie demanded.

And the shippers, recognizing Ronnie Anne, immediately released Cristina and ran away as the tomboy went to check up on the redhead. Notably, Cristina could only whimper incoherently as Ronnie helped her get up and took her to the infirmary, ending the video.

"Good lord, they did _that_ to her just because she suggested them to ship another pairing?!" Lynn questioned.

"Yeah, she wasn't even forcing them at first, she just suggested them what to ship," Lola added.

"Don't worry, it'll end soon," Mrs. Johnson said, looking a little lightheaded from what she just saw. "But for now, there's still one more thing left for you to see. Her revenge."

The next and final video played, showing the four shippers just talking inside a classroom when Cristina arrived, holding a large hammer. What came next could be basically described as a massacre as Cristina pinned and cornered the shippers, and one by one she smashed the hammer down their crotches until the primary shipper had his crotch smashed.

To say everybody winced at the ensuing crotch smashing would be an understatement. Thankfully, though, the video ended right there.

And a couple seconds later, something worse replaced it.

Suddenly, the monitor in the room turned on and showed Lincoln and Cristina's... "intimate" moment, with somewhat decent volume. And almost as if on cue, Cristina's shock collar activated, electrocuting both her and Lincoln in unison. However, while Lincoln continued to do the deed despite the pain, Cristina was basically unaffected.

"Oh yes, punish me for what I've done! Ravage my insides until I can no longer move!" Cristina pleaded, clinging to Lincoln while crying tears of both pain and joy. "Make me your slave! Your whore! _Your queen_..."

As the video went on, everybody tried to shield their eyes from it. Lana and Lola closed their eyes and covered their ears, Lucy and Lynn covered their ears while their parents covered their eyes, and Mrs. Johnson covered her mouth and watched with shock, alongside Bobby and Carol.

Ronnie, however, didn't do anything. She was too horrified by what she was looking at to even think of blocking the sight. Cristina wasn't just hurting herself, she was hurting Lincoln. She was _raping_ Lincoln. And Ronnie fell on her knees and cried as she saw the two "get it on."

 _"Why, Cristina?"_ Ronnie thought as her tears touched the ground. _"You promised me you wouldn't hurt him..."_

But then, the tomboy's shock was replaced by pure, unbridled anger.

"You promised me you wouldn't hurt him! This whole thing was supposed to protect him from this! I only agreed to help you do this entire operation, to save Lincoln from having this happen to him!" Ronnie exclaimed, slamming her fist repeatedly on the ground. "And you went ahead and made it all for nothing! Damn you, Cristina! Damn you to eternal damnation!"

Then a voice spoke:

 _"Hey, Ronnie..."_

The tomboy looked up, only to see Cristina flipping her the bird with the most malicious smile she had pulled off so far. And then the monitor was destroyed by Leni, who grabbed it, tore it from it's spot and then threw it into the abyss. And the rejoice lasted exactly seconds before everybody turned to see Leni looked legitimately pissed off.

"I think that's enough TV for now," Leni stated, her eyes glowing green.

And then the girl transformed her right arm back into its mutated state.

"You can watch some more after you've been disciplined."

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

Leni promptly threw Ronnie over the arena and onto the next room, which was basically a room filled with monitors and computers, with Clyde sitting and watching them all. "Clyde?" Ronnie asked as she approached the boy.

But the boy didn't even respond.

"C-Come on, Clyde, this is the first time I see you since this mess started and I was hoping we could meet in decent circumstances," Ronnie told the kid, but again, he didn't respond. "S-Seriously, dude, you're freaking me out here."


	44. Leni Vs the World

_Meanwhile with Lori, Luna and Luan..._

The trio continued to look through the room to find the ghoul syrum Leni spoke about. Luna checked some boxes, Luan checked the bookshelves, and Lori looked in basically everywhere else.

"Have you guys found the thing yet?" Lori asked, throwing some Ronnie/Lincoln fiction away.

"Nope, nothing from me!" Luan stated, throwing away a book about how to turn off pain receptors.

And eventually, Luna took out a small injection needle with the picture of a skull in it. "Hey, I think I found it!" shouted the rocker, catching her sisters' attention. "It says it's a syrum made specifically to turn people into transformed beings similar to the ghouls from Ghoul Madness, some sort of anime series."

Lori was quite pleased with the news. "Okay then, now all we need to do is-"

Her tone immediately turned into a terrified one when she saw the needle. "I-I-I-It has to be injected?!"

"Well, yeah, but-" Luna answered.

Without warning, Lori ran all around the room, trying to flee from the injection needle. Nevermind the fact that as long as Luan and Luna didn't even bother to inject her, she was safe and sound.

"Since when is Lori afraid of needles?" Luan inquired, legitimately dumbfounded.

"To be fair, it's a big needle," Luna replied with a shrug. "But anyway, let's catch her!"

And so the entertainers chased after the fleeing teenager.

 _Back with Leni and everybody else..._

The remaining Louds-and Ronnie-were literally kicked into the next location: Another large arena, one even bigger than the previous one. And then Leni jumped into the arena and flashed a stern look, her eyes now red with black sclera.

"L-Leni, y-y-you don't have to do this!" Lisa argued.

"Oh, so you think I'm going to listen to you after all the time you've ignored me?" Leni replied, morphing her remaining arm into a sword. "Not this time! You will be disciplined, whether you like it or not!"

And so, Leni kicked Lisa into the wall... And completely ignored everybody else. "I will discipline you all, except Ronnie Anne, individually," Leni explained as she walked to Lisa. "That'll give you more time to both think about your last words and think of any pleading you could do. But it will all be futile in the end, so don't bother."

"Wait, why are you excluding from the discipline?" Ronnie inquired.

Leni immediately returned to the tomboy, grabbed and lifted her as she explained herself, "You don't need to be disciplined. You need to be humored. And what you want, outside of getting out of here, is to find Lincoln and get him out of his situation. And join forces with him to tear Cristina apart, limb from limb, for what she did to him, am I right?"

"In concept, yes, in actual things I'm willing to do, it's too morbid for my taste," Ronnie answered.

"Then go get him, tiger."

Leni promptly threw Ronnie over the arena and onto the next room, which was basically a room filled with monitors and computers, with Clyde sitting and watching them all. "Clyde?" Ronnie asked as she approached the boy.

But the boy didn't even respond.

"C-Come on, Clyde, this is the first time I see you since this mess started and I was hoping we could meet in decent circumstances," Ronnie told the kid, but again, he didn't respond. "S-Seriously, dude, you're freaking me out here."

Once the girl turned the chair around, however, she saw why Clyde didn't respond: His eyes were glowing bright green. _"Oh geez, seriously Cristina?"_ Ronnie thought before trying to free the boy by slapping him in the face.

Needless to say, it didn't work.

 _"Ugh, why didn't I even bother to figure out how to undo these mind control nonsense?!"_ the tomboy then cracked her fingers and put on a determined look. _"Okay, Ronnie, calm down, you still have a chance!"_

 _Back with Leni..._

The teenager threw Lisa around like a ball while her family dusted themselves and tried to think about what to do next. Fighting Leni head-on was definitely out of the question, specially taking into account how vicious the girl acted towards Lisa.

"Okay, so does anybody have any suggestions?" Lynn asked.

"Say our prayers?" Lucy answered with a shrug.

"Figures you'd say that," Lola remarked, rolling her eyes.

And as they discussed that, Leni's "discipling" of Lisa came to a screeching halt when the girl spat out blood and started to cry. Leni decided it was enough "discipling" and let the girl take a break. And this time, not a break to her her bones.

"Now, Lisa, allow me to ask you a question before I move on to discipline the rest of our family," Leni stated, putting her arms behind her back. "Did you ever take into account what I told you in our last fight? My motives for what I'm doing?"

"You... Believe our... Family is... Dysfunctional..." Lisa meekly and weakly answered as she tried to catch her breath. "You wanted me... To try and make... Make it better-"

"Did you ever do anything about it?" Leni sternly added, narrowing her eyes. "Or did you not get anything? After all, you had the bracelet when we last fought."

Then Leni grabbed and lifted Lisa's arm. "But now, the bracelet is no longer there, so I'll know if you're lying to me. And if you dare lie to me..."

The teenager tightened her grip of the girl's arm, causing her to scream. "You get the idea," Leni finished, loosening her grip. "Now tell me, what did you do?"

"I... I tried... Did you... Didn't you see... Didn't you check my room?" Lisa asked, sounding like she was close to breaking down. "I... I had blueprints... Blueprints for machines... That would help our family, b-become better..."

Leni's eyes widened at the statement, and she released the brunette from her grasp as she asked, "You... You listened to me?"

"I... I saw where you were going... I saw what you meant... You do have a point: Our family... It's not as functional as we believe..." Lisa answered with a nod and a little smile. "But... J-Just give me time... I'll... I'll make sure to fix that problem... I'll try my hardest to fix it... You don't... Do you really have to torture me like this... Just so I can get the point?"

And that sentence was all it took for Leni to fall completely speechless. For the first time since probably ever, Lisa actually heard Leni. Somebody actually listened to her, and didn't shut her down, or disregarded her for being "dumb."

So the teenager morphed her mutant arm back to normal, and extended it towards Lisa. "I'm sorry that I hurt you, I..." Leni said as the little genius weakly grabbed the hand. "I honestly thought you didn't listen. I thought you would never listen."

"Well, this time... I did..." Lisa answered as she got up, then promptly clung to Leni's leg to not fall down. "And I regret not having done so earlier..."

But just before this little scene could continue, Lynn kicked Leni hard enough to send her flying while Lola grabbed Lisa and pulled her to her side. "That's what you get for hurting our-and your-sister!" Lynn victoriously proclaimed.

"Why did you do that?!" Lisa complained.

"We had to save you before she did something worse to you!" Lola answered, putting a hand on her hips in exasperation. "The least you could do is show some appreciation, you know?"

"I was trying to calm her down!" Lisa snapped. "I ignored her when she wanted to talk, that's one of the reasons why she was angry! I was trying to let her know I did listen to her, but now, thanks to you two, she's going to be even angrier because you attacked her!"

"And why didn't you tell us about that issue sooner?" Lynn inquired, crossing her arms. "You had an entire week to tell us all about that, but you didn't say anything!"

Now it was Lisa's turn to be rendered speechless. And then came Lynn and Lucy's turn, once Leni got back up and dusted herself. "Lynn, Lynn, Lynn... I believe I told you what was acceptable to do when two people were talking," Leni stated in a calm, but notably annoyed, tone. "And I'm pretty sure attacking one of those people, while holding the other, was not something acceptable."

"What did you expect me to do?! I honestly thought you were about to kill her!" Lynn hissed in response.

Leni promptly ran to Lynn and Lola and punched them hard enough to send them back to the family. "Lisa, you no longer need to be disciplined. Sorry for hurting you," the teenager said to the little genius. "Listen, I'm going to throw you to the same place I threw Ronnie Anne, so hold on tight."

"It's oka-" then she realized what Leni said. "Wait, wha-"

A second later, Lisa screamed as Leni sent her flying to the camera room with a single kick. And with that done, Leni mutated her arm again and swung it at her family, who were sent flying away from the ensuing gust of wind. Then the teenager extended her arm like it was gum, grabbed Lynn, then retracted said arm until she and the tomboy met face-to-face.

"You shall be the next to be disciplined!" Leni growled, flashing a grin at the athlete.

But Lynn just spat right in Leni's face. Naturally, Leni wasn't even amused.

"Oh, you wanna play rough, little puppy?" the fashionista asked, her smile growing wider.

Then Leni pinned Lynn to the ground and finished, in a demented tone, "Then let's play rough!"

 _Back with Ronnie Anne..._

The Hispanic girl shook Clyde as hard as she could when suddenly, Lisa crashed into Clyde and bounced off him. "Lisa?" Ronnie asked, leaving Clyde and helping the scientist get up. "What happened? Why do you look like you got quite a beating?"

"'C-Cause I got quite a beating, but I discovered something about Leni," Lisa answered, catching her breath. "She's not evil, not in the same way as Cristina anyway, she's just really upset at the fact I-and the rest of our family-ignored her for so long, how we didn't try to improve in the meantime, and how I didn't do anything about it either."

"To be fair, seeing how she's had to live with it for, what, just as long as Lori, I'd expect her to get used to it by now," Ronnie argued in return. "What made her want to try and change that? And why did she think you could change anything?"

"I don't know about the first thing, but for the second, I believe it's because with my genius-level intelligence, she simply figured I could do something as miraculous as making the Loud family far less dysfunctional than it already is," Lisa answered, adjusting her glasses. "And I was working on making that a reality, but then... Well, we had to get into this mess."

Ronnie crossed her arms and shook her head. "I still don't see why she thinks "disciplining" her family will do anything to help her," and as the duo continued to speak, Clyde's eyes slowly turned to normal. "Did you try to convince her that this wasn't the best idea?"

"I tried, but thanks to Lynn, Leni's gone past the bargaining stage," Lisa somberly answered, looking at the ground. "Now, she'll either get what she wants, or in the worst case scenario, die trying."

"Ow, my head," Clyde said, before noticing the girls and casually greeting them. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Clyde!" Ronnie shouted before running to the boy, grabbing the neck of his shirt and pulling him towards her. "Tell me, what do you know about what happened?! Why were you here?! What have you been doing?! Were you controlling the cameras or what?!"

"Ronnie, screaming right at his face isn't going to get us answers anytime soon," Lisa told the tomboy.

Soon afterwards, Ronnie released Clyde and Lisa grabbed Clyde's hand before telling him, in a gentle tone, "Now, Clyde, how about you tell us what happened? Give us a brief summary, we don't have all day."

"Well, I was about to ask Cristina about why she wasn't really giving me more information about this whole mess, since she's kept too many secrets for my comfort," Clyde started, scratching his head as he started to remember. "But then... Well..."

 _Sometime ago..._

Cristina dragged Clyde by the collar of his shirt and then threw him at the chair as she said, "Alright, now listen up, Blackie, I got a new mission for you," and as Clyde recovered from the throw, what came next was the breaking point: "I want you to watch over as I and Lincoln engage in... an "intimate" moment, which you will then broadcast to the rest of the tower, understood?"

"What?! You're going to rape my friend?!" Clyde exclaimed as he got off the chair and walked back to Cristina. "I may have agreed to help you with this plan, but I won't let you hurt Lincoln like that!"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he enjoys it," Cristina replied, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. "After all, if he enjoys it, then I won't be hurting him, 'cause he will want more of it."

Suddenly, Clyde threw a punch at Cristina right in the face, but not only did the girl catch it like it was nothing, but she managed to lift and throw Clyde back into the chair, wherein she told him a familiar sentence:

"Would you kindly do me that favor?"

It wasn't long before Clyde's eyes turned bright green, and no matter how hard he tried, he eventually said:

"Yes, Cristina."

 _Back at the present..._

"And that's what happened," Clyde finished. He then crossed his arms and muttered, "Luckily, she finished doing "that" to Lincoln, but seriously, Ronnie, after all the nonsense she's pulled on us, I can't believe you two were friends."

The tomboy turned to the cameras and thought about it. Was she really friends with Cristina? After all, this is the same girl that forced her and Lincoln to go to a date, brainwashed his sisters, brainwashed herself and some other people, and now had raped the poor white-haired boy.

Maybe... It was the time to face the facts.

"We're not friends," Ronnie somberly replied, looking at the ground. "Not anymore."

"Oh my gosh!" Lisa shrieked, startling the tomboy and nerd. "I completely forgot, we need to go find Lincoln!"

"You're right!" Ronnie exclaimed, slapping herself in the cheek. "If Clyde's right, and he better be, then this is our chance to take Lincoln back from Cristina before she does something else to him!"

"What about Cristina?" Clyde inquired. "She's still weak from the... "Intimacy" with Lincoln, we could take the chance to capture her!"

"No way, Lincoln's the bigger priority!" Ronnie retorted, stomping the ground. "Who knows how he's feeling after what she did to him? We have to find him!"

"And we should better be quick, before Leni finishes "disciplining" my family!" Lisa added.

 _Speaking of Leni..._

The teenager threw the "disciplined" Lucy, Lynn and Lola to the pile, right before she grabbed and took Lana and pulled them closer to her. Then, almost without warning, Luna and Luan came out of nowhere and went to Lana's side. "Luna? Luan?" asked the tomboy, glancing at her sisters in surprise.

"Don't worry, Lori's on her way," Luan told Lana. "We just need to hold on for a few more minutes."

"Alright, you three are up next for discipline," Leni stated, cracking her knuckles. "Who wants to go first?"

But nobody answered. Not Luna, or Luan, or Lana.

"Oh come on, one of you has to wish to get this over with quicker!" Leni complained.

Suddenly, Luna took out her guitar and struck Leni with it... Only to back away when Leni not only didn't even flinch from the attack, but she turned back to Luna and shot her a furious glare.

"I-Impossible! I struck you as hard as I could!" Luna said as Leni flashed a smile. "You should at the very least be in a lot of pain right now!"

"I can verify that!" Luan added.

"One amazing thing about the ghoul syrum I was injected with is that not only does it give me amazing powers, but it nullifies my pain receptors for at least an hour," Leni explained, giggling as she grabbed Luna by the neck and lifted her. "So for the remaining 40 minutes, you can throw anything you want at me, but in the end, I'll keep fighting like it didn't do anything!"

Leni threw Luna at Luan, then shifted focus to Lana, who shivered as the teenager approached her in a menacing manner. "It's your turn now," she stated, right before morphing her arm into a large hammer. "Any last words before you're disciplined?"

The mud lover turned to her family, then back to Leni, before giving her answer:

"I don't care if you want the best for us, working for Cristina won't help you achieve that!"

Leni backed away, almost as if she was offended by the sentence. "Work for Cristina? Are you for real?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and wincing at the thought. "She's my enemy as well. It's just that I find making sure my family becomes better is my bigger priority here."

Then, just as she swung her hammer-arm, a new contender entered the arena and punched Leni hard enough to send her flying into a wall, followed by them throwing some spike-like feathers at Leni. Who was this new contender?

It was Lori, with a pair of large, wing-like appendages coming out of her back.

And the teenager, naturally, wasn't really hurt by the attack. "Lori, my dear cinnamon roll," Leni remarked in a motherly tone as she dusted herself. "I was wondering when you would show up."

"Leni, this is between you and me!" Lori proclaimed, aiming her sharp feathers at the teenager. "Leave the rest of our family out of this!"

"Actually, it's between everyone and everyone. Cristina and everyone, if you wanna be even more specific," Leni replied. "But since you want this to be a private fight..."

Leni promptly everybody but Lori out of the arena and onto the next room. And with everybody gone, Leni gave Lori a smug look as the teenagers got ready to fight...

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Let me take a guess, your strategy is based on figuring out my moves first?" Leni asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement. "So you can memorize them and think up appropriate strategy to deal with it? Is that why you haven't attacked yet?"

 _"Dang it! She really is smarter than she looks!"_ Lori thought in horror, before retorting, "W-Well then, if you won't go for it, I guess I'll go first!"

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't," Leni answered with a chuckle. "Then again, I'll be disappointed anyway, so no rush."


	45. Prelude to the End

_Back with Ronnie, Clyde and Lisa..._

The trio ran all around the hallways, looking for the room where Lincoln was held. Lisa checked everywhere meticulously, Clyde tried to remember how the room looked like as he blindly looked inside all doors, and Ronnie simply listened for sound cues after shouting Lincoln's name.

And what a shock, Ronnie's tactic actually worked.

"Lincoln!" Ronnie shouted.

"Polo!" Lincoln shouted in return.

"No, Lincoln, I'm supposed to say Marco first and then-" thankfully, Ronnie soon got her priorities straight. "Lincoln, where are you?!"

"From what I can hear, I seem to be slightly far away from you! I would go to you myself, but I'm still too tired to move!" Lincoln answered, groaning in pain. "I think Cristina and I did it a bit too rough!"

"Save the mental images, please!" Ronnie replied as Lisa and Clyde went to her side. "Listen, Lincoln, keep talking! Lisa, Clyde and I will follow your voice to the room!"

Lincoln did just that and the trio followed the voice until they reached the room it came from. They went inside, and what they first saw was Lincoln, tuckered in the bed while catching his breath. "Lincoln!" Ronnie exclaimed in relief.

"Ronnie!" Lincoln replied. "I'm so glad to see you again. Are you hurt?"

"Forget about me, are you hurt?" Ronnie asked as she and Lisa went to Lincoln's side. Ronnie, in particular, grabbed Lincoln's hand and gave him a reassuring smile. "Do you need anything?"

"Physically, I'm fine, but I might need a towel," the boy answered, blushing and rubbing the back of his head. "Cristina did something to my clothes, and I can't see them anywhere."

"Okay, I'll go get something to cover you up," Ronnie then grabbed and put Lisa on Lincoln's lap. "Here, you can have her company in the meantime. Come on, Clyde!"

The boy and Ronnie begun their search for a towel as Lisa blushed and leaned against Lincoln. "And what happened to you?" Lincoln asked, brushing Lisa's hair. "It looks like you got a pretty harsh beating."

"I did, Leni gave me one," Lisa answered somberly. "She was angry I ignored her, she beat me up to discipline me or whatever, and once I clarified to her that I did listen, she kicked me straight to Ronnie Anne and is now disciplining the rest of our family, as far as I know anyway."

" _Leni... What turned you into such a monstrous girl?_ " Lincoln pondered, looking at the ceiling before hugging Lisa. "We can try to deal with her later, there has to be a way to get her back to her senses after all. For now, I'm happy to have you with me,"

A couple seconds filled with silence later, Lisa put on a genuine smile as she returned the hug and said:

"I'm happy too."

 _Back with Leni and Lori..._

The duo continued to exchanged looks at each other as neither looked like they were going to attack anytime soon. Leni's face was frozen in a smug smile, while Lori started to sweat as she tried to maintain a straight face.

 _"Come on, Leni, I'm waiting for you,"_ Lori thought, narrowing her eyes. _"Show me how you move, show me how you work!"_

"Let me take a guess, your strategy is based on figuring out my moves first?" Leni asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement. "So you can memorize them and think up appropriate strategy to deal with it? Is that why you haven't attacked yet?"

 _"Dang it! She really is smarter than she looks!"_ Lori thought in horror, before retorting, "W-Well then, if you won't go for it, I guess I'll go first!"

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't," Leni answered with a chuckle. "Then again, I'll be disappointed anyway, so no rush."

Then, Lori ran straight for Leni and smacked her with her wings. Naturally, the teenager wasn't fazed in the slightest. "Lori, even if it was a small variation, you took the same ghoul serum, right?" Leni inquire as she grabbed Lori's hand. "If you did, you should know that for the rest of 1 hour, I'm not going to feel any pain from your attacks whatsoever."

"Well, the good news is that I don't have to feel sorry for hurting you!" Lori barked, all while she mentally lamented, _"But I still will."_

"Bad news is, I can work with the same rules," Leni replied, tightening her grip on Lori's hand. "How about we do some tango, baby?"

Then, the teenager threw Lori to a wall and tried to punch her with her mutated arm, only for Lori to dodge and then kick her hard enough to send her crashing through the wall. And once Lori saw underneath them was a large abyss, she tried to grab Leni, only to be dragged with Leni down to the bottom. Once they crashe, a purple explosion occurred... And once the clouds dispersed, Lori was restraining Leni, who was pinned to the ground.

"Leni, I won't be merciful with you for long!" Lori bluffed, tightening her grip. "Surrender now, or you will face my wrath!"

"You're just bluffing, aren't you?" Leni inquired.

Lori's silence spoke for itself.

"Heh, looks like I spread my idiocy to you!" Leni hissed before shaking Lori off.

And then, as Lori recovered, Leni kicked her in the gut before bitch-slapping her with her hammer arm. However, much to Leni's surprise, Lori actually flinched and winced in pain. "You're actually feeling the pain?" Leni asked in genuine disbelief. "What type of ghoul serum did you take?"

"The exact same one you took!" Lori snapped, before calming down and adding, "M-Maybe Cristina did something to you that made you unable to feel pain?"

"Well, she did mention the torture would somehow wind up turning off my pain receptors, but she said it in the same sentence she mentioned the ghoul syrum..." Leni remarked. But just as she thought about it, she disregarded the idea and cracked her knuckles. "Well, whatever, time to continue the beating!"

Leni dashed straight for Lori and punched and kicked her several times, with the teenager only managing to block one or two of the attacks before she manage to counterattack... Which, again, didn't even fazed Leni. Although this time, the teenager looked more disappointed than outright angry.

"Lori, are you holding back?"

Lori flinched at the question, before trying to attack again with a punch, only for Leni to grab the punch like it was nothing. And seeing how Lori wasn't even annoyed at the catch, it probably really was nothing.

"You're holding back, aren't you?" Leni asked, tightening her grip on the punch in anger. "Stop holding back and do all you can to kill me!"

"No! Because I don't want to kill you, I want to get you back!" Lori answered. "I know this isn't the real you, Leni! You need to get back to your senses and realize this isn't the right way to do things!"

Leni threw Lori into a wall and morphed her mutated arm into a sword. "If you won't fight, then I'll make sure you regret that decision!" she stated.

And Lori could only glare in defiance as Leni prepared to strike. However, just as she struck, Lori dodged the attack... and kissed Leni right on the lips, right before hugging her tightly enough so she wouldn't escape. Although, Leni's surprising lenience at the act implied she wasn't exactly displeased with it. And then Leni returned the hug...

 _Back with the family..._

The Louds crash-landed into the camera room, got up and dusted themselves. So afterwards, Lynn went ahead and looked around the rooms. "Junior, I don't think it's a good idea to separate right now!" Mr. Loud exclaimed as he chase after the athlete.

"Dad, I know why you're worried, but there's no time to waste!" Lynn replied, before she stopped and approach the door to Lincoln and Cristina's room. "Wait, I can hear him!"

Having heard the girl, the family followed her into the room, and what they saw was Ronnie covering Lincoln with a towel while Clyde took care of Lisa's wounds. "Ronnie? Clyde?" Lynn asked as she walked closer to her brother. "When did you get here?"

"Not too long after Leni kicked me into the camera room," Ronnie answered as Lynn checked Lincoln. "Long story short, Cristina forced Clyde to watch their... event, then show it to the rest of the tower, and now... Well, I don't know where to go now but up. Although, Lincoln doesn't seem to be in a good state right now."

"I'm fine!" Lincoln replied, forcing a smile. "I'm just... A little lightheaded, that's all..."

"I'm sorry we couldn't help you deal with Cristina, Lincoln," Lynn told her brother as she and Lucy brushed his hair. "But we got kinda caught up with... Another problem."

"More specifically, we found out more Cristina's "motive," if you can even call it that," Luna added. "You know she researched shipping, but after she did that, she received quite a beating in the crotch from some people who liked to see her and you together."

"Well, I think that's where she got her crotch-attacking habit," Lincoln remarked, rolling his eyes. "But why would they do that to her?"

"She tried to convince them to "ship" you and Ronnie Anne instead of you and Cristina," Lynn answered. "The end result... Well, we already told you what it was."

Lincoln didn't respond, he just looked at the ground in contemplation before he turned to Ronnie and asked, "So, did Cristina... Actually want us to get together?"

"Well, from what I can gather, she seemed to think we looked cute as a couple. Although, maybe she was just trying to convince them to "ship" something that was more likely to happen," Ronnie answered, blushing and twiddling her fingers. "Nevertheless, she did seem pretty enthusiastic about our... Potential relationship. Who knows? Maybe she really wanted to see us get together."

"So much, in fact, she would _force_ us to get together," Lincoln pointed out, looking back at the ground. "You know what? I think we're wasting time right now. We should try to find where Cristina is right now."

"But how?" Luan asked. "We have no idea where she went."

And then Lucy noticed something. "Uh, guys?"

She caught everybody's attention and then pointed at what she saw: A trail of red and white leading to what looked like a curtain. And when everybody went through the curtain, they saw a staircase leading deeper down the tower...

"I think I found her trail..." Lucy said with a smile.

 _Meanwhile, with a particular trio that was left forgotten..._

Mrs. Johnson, Bobby and Carol stood in the middle of an elevator, which was going at a leisurely pace. "Can't this piece of junk go any faster?" Carol complained, looking at her watch.

"This "piece of junk" is one of the latest type of elevators, built with the most advanced technology up to this date," Mrs. Johnson clarified. "It's literally the most advanced elevator in existence in the 21st century."

"And yet it can't go any faster?" Carol asked. "All we need now is some obnoxious elevator music!"

Cue the obnoxious elevator music.

"Oh come on!"

"Where are we going to anyway, Mrs. Johnson?" Bobby inquired as he tried to calm down the exasperated Carol.

"While I was carefully looking at the blueprints of this place, I found a peculiar room that sat at a particular spot," the redheaded woman explained. "I never really got the chance, but since Cristina's heading there, we have no choice but to head there as well."

"And how do you know she's heading there?" Carol asked.

"Because after everything that's happened up to this point, she'll cling to any comfort she can find," and then Mrs. Johnson looked at the ground... "And this room... if we don't get there first, the Louds are in big trouble."

 _And back with the team..._

Lincoln, Ronnie, Clyde and the sisters followed the trail of red and white stuff as they walked across a long, barren hallway, which oddly enough looked a lot like a house. And once they went through a purple curtain, they found themselves in a... Peculiar room.

This room looked like a nursery, with a bunch of baby cribs decorating the otherwise empty room. One crib, in particular, had a little baby doll inside. A baby doll that had physical features from both Ronnie and Lincoln. Not only that, but at the sides of the crib was a name:

Roxie Santiago-Loud.

"Okay, Cristina really outdid herself this time," Luna remarked as Ronnie and Lincoln gave a closer look at the baby. "She really wants you to get together."

"I... Agree, this is simply disturbing," Lucy said with a shaky tone.

"She planned this far ahead?" Ronnie uttered, giving the baby a worried look. "Why?"

And then the remaining Louds went check the remaining baby cribs, which also had particular baby dolls in them. The first had traits from both Lori and Leni, and the side of the crib had the name "Loni Loud." written on it.

"Huh, I wonder how would Lori take this," Clyde remarked.

The next had traits from both Luna and Luan, and had the name "Lulu Loud" on the side. Luna and Luan, however, had nothing to say, they just looked at the baby doll with both awe and horror.

Up next was a baby doll that had traits from both Lynn and Lucy, and was baptized "Lynx Loud."

"Okay, now I'm seriously wondering if Cristina ever thought about this nonsense," Lynn complained. "How would two girls give birth to a baby?!"

"Maybe she figured we would wind up adopting one?" Lucy argued.

"And how did you reach that conclusion?" Lynn inquired.

The emo didn't respond.

The next baby doll had traits of both Lola and Lana and was named "Lona Loud."

"I don't know about you, but this looks more like our little sister rather than our daughter," Lana remarked, earning a horrified look from Lola. "Yeah, in hindsight, that's even worse."

And last but not least, the final baby doll had traits of Lisa... And Lincoln, and was named "Lilo Loud." Like Luna and Luan, the little genius didn't say anything, instead she just looked at the baby doll with worry and a hint of pity.

"Uh, guys, the trail continues here!" Clyde exclaimed, pointing at the trail of red and white stuff, leading to yet another curtain. "Let's focus on getting to Cristina first!"

Everybody but Ronnie and Lincoln headed straight for the curtain, while the kids gave the baby doll a worried, creeped out look before putting it back on it's crib and following the rest of the team.

 _And with Cristina..._

The redhead slithered across the ground, leaving behind a trail of both blood and... a white liquid behind. "Well, I'm positive I can add "take Lincoln's innocence" to the list of plans that haven't worked as intended," the girl remarked as she stopped, then clutched her stomach. "But no matter, in the end, everything will be worth it."

The redhead chuckled to herself before she continued to crawl towards the arena... With everybody else following her. And then, once she found herself in the arena, she realized the team also caught up with her. She was basically cornered.

"Cristina, stop running away!" Lincoln demanded. "If we really have to fight, at least answer me: Why did you mentally torture my sisters? What made you think I wouldn't mind that?!"

But the redhead just chuckled to herself, confusing everybody. "Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln," she remarked before giving the boy a look of worry. "Do you really think the alternative is any better?"

"What are you talking about?" Lincoln inquired.

"Lincoln, we just had a nice little intimate moment, where you utterly skewered my insides," Cristina started, forcing a smug smile as she clutched her stomach in pain. "I expected you to stay a little bit more... put, after what we did. After all, your thing not only violated, but it pierced and damaged my internal vaginal walls until they were bleeding, and then you continued until I could only plead to you to keep destroying my insides, and turn me into your slave..."

By this moment, everybody present could almost feel their breakfast escaping their stomachs.

"Sadly, though, that wound up hurting me more than you," the redhead added, blushing and scratching the back of her head. "I'm going to be honest: shoving your thing up my crotch was not the brightest of ideas. But the alternative was much, much worse."

"Now what nonsense are you talking about?" Ronnie asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Take a look at what happened between me and Lincoln: I raped him, yes, but he gathered enough power to turn the tables. He made me regret doing that," the redhead explained, folding her arms behind her back. "But if his sisters were to do what I did... He would be powerless to stop them, and you could turn him into your sex slave if you wanted."

"Now that's just some nonsensical garbage you're spitting out right now!" Lisa replied, stomping the ground. "We would never do that to Lincoln! We love him!"

"Or do you?" the redhead retorted, making Lisa take a step back. "Let me recall a couple of things you've done with him: You've essentially treated him like a servant, or a slave. He's suffered far more from your hand than he has from mine."

And then she turned to Lola. "Don't you recall when he ignored you because? You tortured him with the idea that something bad would happen to him because he didn't do you a stupid favor."

"H-How do you-" Lola stuttered.

Then to Lisa. "Don't you remember when you sent him to an alternate dimension where he had brothers, where he had a miserable time?"

"Y-You shouldn't-" the genius stammered.

Then to Luna. "Or when you nearly ruined his first concert and got him in jail, because you weren't watching him?"

"I-I made up for it!" Luna shouted defensively.

Then, to Lynn and Lucy, both at the same time. "Or when you invaded his personal space, and then made him become the laughingstock just to save your pathetic, weak goth heart, simply because you liked Princess Pony books?"

"T-That was personal, how did you even find out about it?!" Lynn exclaimed in horror.

"H-He insisted..." Lucy stammered, sounding like she was on the verge of tears.

Then to Luan, this time with a furious look. "Or when you pranked him endlessly in April Fools, and tortured all of your family with your damn pranks, only to bring Ronnie Anne to do the same to her, and then have Lincoln take up the bullet for her?!"

"Okay, seriously, how do you know all this stuff?!" Luan complained.

Clyde and Ronnie looked away as they confessed, "We told her."

Everybody turned to look at them. "Why did you do that?!" Lincoln asked.

"Lincoln, back then, I honestly thought I could trust Cristina," Ronnie answered, shedding tears of regret. "We were the best friends, we told each other everything, and once the plan started, that included telling her about the whole deal with the pranks and everything else."

"As for me, she never really gave me a choice," Clyde answered. "She did her "would you kindly" thing and I couldn't help but spill the beans."

Lincoln turned back to Cristina, giving her a defiant glare while "What point are you trying to get across?"

"Your sisters have been hurting you long before I ever had the idea to destroy them," Cristina stated with a matter-of-fact tone. "And, with all that in mind, how can they claim to love you when they've only hurt and used you?"

"Now listen up, you bi-" Linc hissed, narrowing his eyes.

"Although, I will be honest," Cristina got up and caught her breath. "None of that matters right now."

The Louds, Ronnie and Clyde stood their ground as Cristina approached a control panel and pressed some buttons.

"We're all gathered, minus Lori and Leni, but I'm pretty sure we can deal without them," the redhead added as the ground shook. "Right now, however, it's time to take the retribution up to eleven."

And then the platform elevated up and transported everybody as fast as it could to the top of the tower, all while Cristina looked at the sky with a smug smile. Truly, this was all coming to an end...

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

Lincoln gave Ronnie a worried look, while the tomboy simply gave Cristina a furious look in return. "So, who's going to try to kick my ass first?" the redhead called, pulling off a dual "come at me" gestures while eyeing all the Louds. "Come on, don't be shy! And certainly don't try to be clever, I'm not in the mood for wisecracking arsehats. And remember, the point is for this being a warmup, so nothing too serious."

"A warmup?" Luan repeated. "What are you blabbering about?"

"Let me be blunt: Once I actually getting serious, you will have to pull out all your punches if you want to survive," the redhead explained. "And since nobody seems to be willing to step forward, I'm going to pick... Luna."


	46. Shippingeddon

_Meanwhile, back with Lori and Leni..._

The ghouled teenagers sat down and looked at the ground, Leni looking at it with apparent exasperation while Lori looked more... Worried, than anything. Not only that, they remained silent and refused to look at each other. And who could blame them? First, Leni tortures her family and angers Lori, then Lori tries her hardest to kick her ass, and then Lori kissed her when she tried to attack her.

It was quite a volatile event, specially since they were lovers.

"Leni, can I ask you something?" Lori asked, giving the teenager a mixed look of worry and pity.

The teenager didn't even flinch at the question, she simply looked away before replying, "Go ahead."

After all, if it would help ease some tension between her and Lori, maybe asking questions would help? It's not like they weren't used to it, this entire adventure has been all questions, little answers.

Cue the question: "Why are you working with Cristina? What makes you think working with her is a good idea?"

"Why is everybody thinking that I'm that stupid?!" Leni snapped, slamming her fist into the floor. It was bad enough her family thought she was working with Cristina, but to have _Lori_ think so too, was simply too much. "I'm not, and will never be, Cristina's lackey!"

"But think about what has happened up to this point: You used something Cristina gave me in order to manipulate our family, and just now, whether you meant it or not, you did what she herself did: manipulate and torture our sisters," Lori argued, with Leni contemplating and shrinking as she continued to talk. "Do you really think what you've been doing up to this point has been any different than what Cristina's doing?"

The teenager contemplated about the revelation some more, and once the truth dawned on her, she shed tears: Good intentions or not, she was, method-wise, basically a blonde version of Cristina, but a bit more stupid. So yeah, basically a blonde version of Cristina.

Once she fully processed it, she glanced between herself and Lori, growing more annoyed with each glance. Even if Lori was right to an extent, Leni was simply doing what Cristina was doing, she wasn't a complete copycat of that redheaded psychopath... Right?

And then Lori spoke once again, completely catching Leni off-guard: "Leni, you have to admit it: If you keep acting like this, you'll be no better than Cristina."

"...If that's how it's going to be..." the teenager got up and took a long, remorseful look at her arm. What would come next would be something she'd regret, but she still had to try.

She morphed her arm into a mutant one and tried to attack Lori. "Then so be-"

But Lori simply blocked the attack with her wings, and gave Leni's tearful look of desperation an expression of both pity and worry. "Stop," she requested, sounding both fearful and worried. "For everybody's own good."

Lori released Leni's mutated arm and gave the teenager some time to contemplate. Leni gave a longing look at her mutated arm, and then at her surroundings, where there was basically nothing but cold, sterile machinery around. And honestly, besides the lack of machinery torturing her to the brink of insanity, the place wasn't much different from the start of the tower.

But nevertheless, Leni looked at the ground. There was nowhere else left for look, anyway. "Do you really think there is hope for me left?" Leni cried, shedding tears as she turned to Lori and shakily asked. "After... After all I've done?"

The fellow ghouled teenager crossed her arms and took a deep breath as she thought about it. Not that it took long, since she soon answered with the most honest tone she's used up to this point:

"You're my sister, Leni. And, by a technicality, my girlfriend too. I want what's best for you, and this... This isn't what's best for you. Specially taking into account how you're brainwashing our sisters into acting the way you want-"

Then, without warning, Leni slapped Lori with her normal arm.

"B-But if I didn't do that, everything would be back to the way it was and stay that way for the rest of our lives!" she argued in desperation, gaining a hint of fear as Lori slowly turned back at Leni, her eyes obscured by her hair. "If I don't brainwash us, we'll never change for the better! Nobody will ever _try_ to change for the better! We'll just continue being the cookie-cutter stereotypes we've been for our lives!"

Then Lori stomped the ground, causing the teenager to drop down and hit the floor. With that done, Leni fearfully shook as Lori walked closer to her... And then extended her hand towards her while showing a reassuring smile.

"I agree with your intention, and I believe there is a way we can make sure our family grows for the better," Lori told the teenager. "And that is... If we work together. With your determination, and my ability to keep control, we could help our siblings develop for the better, _without_ using brainwashing to get there. But we'll only get to do that if you agree with me. So, what will you do?"

After a couple of seconds, Leni flashed a smile, grabbed Lori's hand and got up before she gave her a hug out of nowhere. Now, this would be the perfect chance for Leni to backstab Lori, and once a couple seconds passed...

Nothing happened.

"So, you really do agree with me?" Lori asked before promptly returning the hug and patting her sister's back. "That's the Leni I know and love. It's good to have you back."

Leni said nothing, and just enjoyed the hug for the moment.

 _Back with Cristina and everybody else..._

The team and the redhead soon reached the top of the tower, where outside of some conveniently placed pieces of rubble large enough to provide cover, was a pretty dang huge satellite antenna, and a serum located in the middle of an arena.

"Where did you take us?" Lincoln asked while Ronnie looked around with worry, yet unfazed at the same time.

"Just a little arena I made for when you inevitably decided to fight me," Cristina answered, crossing her arms as her shock collar charged up with energy, then unleashed it soon afterwards. The redhead was, of course, unaffected. "And since you all probably want me dead at this point, then why not give you the chance to kill me?"

Most of the Louds got prepared to fight with the redhead... Except for Lola and Lisa who shivered and looked for places to hide. "By the way, if any of you is cowardly enough, or is simply too weak to do anything, you can hide behind one of those large pieces of rubble," Cristina added, pointing at one of the mentioned rubble pieces. "And if you're wondering where they came from..."

The redhead turned to Ronnie Anne and flashed a furious look. "You can thank Ronnie here for putting them up," she finished, with a clear hint of rage in her tone.

Lincoln gave Ronnie a worried look, while the tomboy simply gave Cristina a furious look in return. "So, who's going to try to kick my ass first?" the redhead called, pulling off a dual "come at me" gestures while eyeing all the Louds. "Come on, don't be shy! And certainly don't try to be clever, I'm not in the mood for wisecracking arsehats. And remember, the point is for this being a warmup, so nothing too serious."

"A warmup?" Luan repeated. "What are you blabbering about?"

"Let me be blunt: Once I actually getting serious, you will have to pull out all your punches if you want to survive," the redhead explained. "And since nobody seems to be willing to step forward, I'm going to pick... Luna."

The rockstar flinched and took a step back as Cristina flashed a malicious smirk. That being said, she soon gathered enough courage to walk forward and stop a couple of feet away from the redhead, who simply gave her a look simply oozing with sadism.

"So, Luna Loud. Rockstar in-training, Luan's lover and girlfriend..." Cristina remarked before crossing her arms and finishing with, "And a Lincoln rapist."

Luna once again flinched. "W-What nonsense are you talking about this time?!" she hissed back, stomping the ground. "Ever since this whole mess started, I've been completely faithful to Luan!"

"I'm not talking about what you've done during this mess. It could've happened before, it could happen later, the point is that it can potentially happen, and I'm disgusted by it," then the girl explained: "Imagine, if you will, that Lincoln and you have the house all for yourselves. Then, he asks you to teach him about incest, or perhaps, just to try something he found out. You go along with him, but make him uncomfortable in the process."

As she continued, Luna clenched her teeth and narrowed her eyes, growing progressively angrier at the accussation. Not only that, but the rest of her family also grew angry, except for Lincoln, who grew confused.

"Then, once you're past the "blowing" stage, you decide to copulate. Not on his wishes, but yours. You continue to do it even when he makes it clear that he no longers. You say he started it, and that's why you should keep on doing it, even though he no longer has any desire to do it. So, he does it, he shoots his "white impregnation liquid" or whatever it's called up you. The two of you know what can happen. What the consequences of doing that would be, but you no longer care. Once it's done, you decide to keep on going, until you're fully satisfied. And so begins Lincoln's tale as your personal, human sextoy-"

"Where the hell did you get that information?!" Luna snapped, grabbing and lifting Cristina by the neck of her dress. "Who told you those big, fat lies?!"

The redhead gave a smug smirk before focusing on Luna's chest. More specifically, she focused on the part where her heart would be. And then she broke free, punched the part of the heart in a particular away and answered, "The internet" with her smirk intact.

And once she hit the ground, Cristina watched with delight as Luna clutched her chest and gasped for air. "What... What did you do to me?!" the rocker asked in a panic. "What the hell did you do to me?!"

"I simply stopped your heart, nothing more, nothing less," the redhead answered, folding her arms as Luna's agony continued. "You see, there's a particular strike that, once it connects to the heart, it stops it. And what's best: this can be done at any moment. So whenever you fight, whenever you throw a punch, whenever you receive a punch that connects even slightly with your heart..."

Luna got on her knees and cried as her vision started to grow blurry. "Your heart would stop, and it would be too late by the time you noticed." "At this time, I would most likely watch as you desperately try to live on, despite knowing that you will die a pitiful, unfulfilling death."

Cristina's shock collar beeped again, and the girl walked forward and put a hand in Luna's chest. "But you're lucky for one reason and one reason only, dear Luna..."

She made the rockstar look at her, and gave her a scowl. "You have yet to entertain me."

The shock collar unleashed electricity all around Cristina and, thanks to the chest-touching, Luna herself was also affected by it, to the point she was sent flying back to Luan. Once the shocking stopped, Luna's heart started moving again and the rockstar calmed down as she successfully caught her breath.

"I'm... I'm okay?!" Luna asked, looking at herself.

"Very cool, right?" Cristina asked, catching everybody's attention as she revealed her hand was still surrounded by electricity. Pink and blue electricity. "I can restart organs with electricity! Because lighting! In fact, I could probably even revive you if you wound up dead."

Then the lighting dispersed. "But don't give me any ideas," and then the redhead pointed at the large antenna. "Now, if you're wondering what's up with the giant antenna, which you probably should, then allow me to explain: It's the final component that will help my final plan begin!"

"How is a giant antenna going to help you torture us?" Luan asked.

"That's not my main plan, that's just a delightful bonus," the redhead replied.

"Well then, how is that going to help you get Lincoln and Ronnie Anne together?" Lucy pondered out loud.

"That was also a delightful bonus," then Cristina looked away. "Before Ronnie screwed it up, that is. No, my main plan... Is to destroy all of shipping!"

Cue the crickets and the Louds stuttering in sheer disbelief. "That doesn't make any sense!" Lisa exclaimed at the top of her lungs.

"The heck do you mean?" Cristina asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Up to this point, all you've done is either torture or demean us or try to get Lincoln and Ronnie Anne together, without any hints that you wanted to destroy shipping at all!" Lisa explained, putting her hands on her hips. "Why would you waste so much time tormenting and torturing us if in the end, all you want to do is destroy something that's not related to us in any way?!"

"Because I hate you that much, little twat," the redhead smugly responded. "And if God has any problem with it, then let His mighty wrath smite me down!"

Suddenly, a lightling bolt came down the sky, but it basically struck the large antenna instead of the redhead. "Wow, we haven't even met and he already misses me? I'm flattered!" Cristina said, grabbing her blushing cheeks. "But, I believe I should stay focused on what matters right now."

The redhead chuckled before giving the Loud family the pointer finger.

"Consider yourself honored, Loud family!" Cristina proclaimed, raising her fist as the sky darkened and thunder roared. "Because you got first seats, to behold the start of the Shippingeddon!"

"Shippingeddon? Huh, that's kind of an underwhelming name for a genocide-type event," Lola nonchalantly remarked. "I would go with something more along the lines of Shippergeddon, or Swagnarok."

"Ship-o-calypse Now," Lucy blurted with a little smile and giggle.

"Oh, that has a nice ring to it!" Luna said, snapping her fingers. "Maybe we could even use it as a band name-!"

"Everybody shut up!" Cristina yelled at the top of her lungs, causing everybody to shut up and focus on her. "This is _my_ genocide, and I'll name it however I want! And it's name, is Shippingeddon!" and then she almost casually added, "Though I'll also use the names you made up, 'cause they really are good."

"That's not so bad-" Lana pointed out.

Then the redhead revealed: "And then I'll copyright them so you may never get to use them yourselves!"

"You monster!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Yeah, you can't do that!" Lynn added. "What about the law of fair use?!"

"I'll copyright the fair use law as well!" Cristina added with a smirk.

Lisa blinked twice. "I... Don't think that's even possible-"

"Whatever! I'll just find another way to piss you off!" then the redhead looked around to see a couple of cameras coming up from the ground. "But for now, I must make an official announcement."

Cristina walked to the nearest camera and then snapped her fingers, somehow causing all the cameras to turn on at once. This, in addition, somehow managed to change all the TV channels of the world-minus the sports ones-to show Cristina and the arena.

Among the notable locations affected were Tabby, Polly Pain, Haiku, Giggles, and the McBrides houses, alongside the interior of the tower, where Lori and Leni watched in confusion and horror as Cristina spoke:

"Do not adjust your TV set, this is an special announcement coming from me, Cristina Johnson. You may know me from Royal Woods, Michigan, but then again, you probably don't, because I decided to vanish from the face of the Earth after a... Particular incident. But anyway, you may be wondering why I decided to invade all channels and replace it with my own. Well, don't fear everyone, because the sport's channels have been left alone!"

"Woohoo!" Lynn exclaimed.

"However!" Cristina added.

 _"Oh, shit,"_ Lynn thought.

"If you do change the channel right now, you may miss something very important," the redhead's smirk grew wider. "Because from this moment on, I announce the beginning of the end of shipping. That's right, today, begins, the Shippingeddon!"

Suddenly, "#Shippingeddon" appeared underneath Cristina. "Be part of the conversion at #Shippingeddon."

"And, she's already trending," Lori remarked, looking at her phone as the whole internet raged about the deal.

However, Leni just had a simple question: "Where did you get the phone?"

"And now, to make sure you pay attention!" Cristina said as her hand was filled with electricity once more.

Then she walked to a lever next to the large antenna and pulled it down, turning it on and causing it to send pink shockwaves all around the world as Cristina's shock collar unleashed electricity once more. The side-effects included everyone's eyes glowing green and watching their TV sets as intently as possible, though everybody on the tower-inside or outside-were basically unaffected.

"Now that I have everybody's utmost attention," Cristina turned to the Louds and flashed a malicious glare. "It's about time I get the catharsis I've been longing for long enough."

The redhead walked to the serum, took it and presented it to the Louds. "This is the ghoul serum, the same thing that transformed both Leni and Lori," she stated as she took out the needle. "Although, now that you see the length of this needle, I'm surprised Lori managed to get this injected on her without freaking out. But whatever, let's get this over with!"

Cristina jammed the needle up her veins and everybody flinched as the serum was injected in the girl's bloodstream. With that done, Cristina took out the serum, threw it away, and clutched her chest as she felt the serum start taking effect. Then she fell to her knees and started to spit out blood as she twitched in pain.

"Oh, please tell me she's going to die," Lynn said, clasping her hands with hope. "Please tell me she'll wind up dying by a heart attack or some other convenient thing and we won't have to deal with evil monster Cristina!"

"So, normal Cristina?" Lana scoffed.

Then a couple of spiky, tentacle-like appendages came out of the girl's back, while her blood turned black in color and she slowly stopped twitching. Then, she got back up and cracked her knuckles as her forearms turned a darker skin color, followed by a couple of mahogany patches forming all over her body.

And suddenly, she flashed a demented look, revealing her eyes were now red with black sclera.

"Looks like we're not so lucky," Lucy remarked, sounding legitimately terrified.

"Now come on, give me your best shot! Use all you got in order to scratch me!" Cristina stated, giving the Louds the "come at me" hand gesture while sporting a malicious, demented smirk. "Don't hold back, and entertain me for your lives!"

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Oh come on, is nobody going to come forward?" Cristina complained, crossing her arms. "Are you seriously so pathetic that, when confronted with a decision to live or die, you just stand in place and await your fate? That you'd rather sit by and let the world decide for you, instead of taking the initiative?"

"It's not our fault!" Lynn exclaimed, stomping the ground with obvious fear. "After everything you did to us, we... We're kinda worried about getting you angrier!"

"Is that so?" the redhead chuckled to herself. "Well, Lynn, since you can't keep your damn mouth shut for even a single second, how about you step forward? Be the first to entertain me for your life."


	47. The Shattering

Back where we left off, the Louds stood in place while Cristina, now having injected herself with the ghoul serum, gestured them to come after her. However, none of the Louds dared to move, except for the ones who hid behind a large piece of rubble, which were Lincoln, Lola and Lisa.

"So, wait, what just happened?" Clyde inquired, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"Cristina injected herself with some sort of superhuman serum," Ronnie sternly explained, narrowing her eyes as gave a terrible revelation: "Now she's a sadistic abomination of nature!"

"Oh no, Cristina turned into Cristina!" Clyde shrieked in horror.

"Oh come on, is nobody going to come forward?" Cristina complained, crossing her arms. "Are you seriously so pathetic that, when confronted with a decision to live or die, you just stand in place and await your fate? That you'd rather sit by and let the world decide for you, instead of taking the initiative?"

"It's not our fault!" Lynn exclaimed, stomping the ground with obvious fear. "After everything you did to us, we... We're kinda worried about getting you angrier!"

"Is that so?" the redhead chuckled to herself. "Well, Lynn, since you can't keep your damn mouth shut for even a single second, how about you step forward? Be the first to entertain me for your life."

Polly Pain gasped and flinched, her heart skipping a beat as Lynn shivered, unable to think of a smug response. "I'm... I'm not sure that-" she said.

And then Cristina hissed, "I'm not _asking_ you to come, I'm _ordering_ you to come!"

Suddenly, one of Cristina's tentacles appendages extended, grabbed Lynn and dragged the athlete to the redhead, who smirked as the tomboy struggled to break free. "Not so much fun when _you're_ the one trapped in a hopeless situation, isn't it, Lynn?" Cristina scoffed as a camera focused solely on the athlete. "Come on, don't be shy, be honest, tell everyone how you feel right now."

"Let me go you deformed octopus-brat!" Lynn barked, punching the appendage. "I've had enough of your crap, and once I get out of this, I'm going to tear your limbs and beat you to near-death!"

"Ha, classic Lynn: Cute on the outside, but you don't want to get her angry," Polly remarked from the "comfort" of her house.

Cristina, however, wasn't fazed by the threat at all. "It seems you have no idea how to properly address your superiors," she said as her remaining tentacled appendages approached Lynn. "Allow me to demonstrate why you should be more respectful."

Soon afterwards, one of the appendages slid up Lynn's shorts, and apparently inserted itself into the girl's body, causing her to squirm and flinch as the girls covered their crotches and winced. Then, as the appendage moved all over the girl's insides, Cristina simply watched with delighted approval, right before giving the tomboy a simple order:

"Say aunt."

But Lynn refused. "Never!"

Cue another tentacled appendage going inside Lynn's body, causing the athlete to cry and grit her teeth as she struck the appendage keeping her in place. "Aw, how cute, you think hurting me's going to help you get free," Cristina giggled. "But I'm afraid there's no hope for you in this case. Your sisters are doing nothing. Your family is doing nothing. I can help you, though, if you call me... Aunt Cristina."

"Go to hell!" Lynn hissed.

Cue the third tentacled appendage going up Lynn's body, and this time the tomboy shrieked in agony. "Get them out! Take them out! They're too much! Too much!" she pleaded at the top of her lungs while trying, in vain, to hurt Cristina enough to free herself.

"Oh, so it hurts?" Cristina inquired, gaining a wide, sadistic smile. "Is that all?"

"No, it's not!" Lynn shouted. "They feel weird, squirming and moving inside me! They're violating me! My insides! Make it stop! Make it stop!"

But then Lucy shouted, "Lynn, don't give in so quickly! You gotta be strong for me! For Lana!"

"Yeah, don't give in!" Lana added. "This isn't the Lynn I grew to admire! The one I admired was strong, charismatic, kind of a bully but you did it in a loving way! You can survive this!"

Unfortunately, a single glare from Cristina, alongside her hissing "Stay out of this" was more than enough to get the duo to shut up. This promptly gave Lynn the idea to just bite Cristina's tentacle, and once the redhead flinched from the attack, she took out the three appendages inside Lynn, then threw her up in the air.

"You know what?" Cristina exclaimed as she prepared her tentacles as if they were baseball bats.

Then, once she had everything set and Lynn fell, she smacked her with the tentacles hard enough to send her flying back to her family as she spat, "To hell with you!" in complete rage.

And once the athlete crash-landed next to Lucy and Lana, the duo-and Lola-went to their sister and checked her up. "Are you okay?"

"I don't think I'll move for a while," Lynn answered, looking away as she started to cry. "Those tentacles did a good number on me..."

From her house, Polly shed tears and covered her mouth with her hands as the camera specifically focused on the crying Lynn. But then the camera cut to Cristina's face, turning any horror the girl had into anger.

"Okay, so Lynn has entertained me," the redhead stated, as if she didn't expect anybody to figure it out on their own. "Who else will step forward and entertain me for their lives? Perhaps Lana? Perhaps Lucy? Eitherway, this is going to be fun!"

Afterwards, Lucy and Lana exchanged looks, nodded in unison, and then ran after the ghouled redhead. But she just chuckled before extending two of the tentacles she used to... "Forcefully molest" Lynn's insides at the two, and before they could react, the tentacles got inside Lucy and Lana's mouth right before the third tentacle smacked them back to their family and side-by-side with Lynn, who watched with surprise as the girls spat out the content and tried to clean their tongues.

"Oh man, if you could look at your faces! Priceless!" Cristina chuckled as Haiku-from her house of course-Lana and Lucy gave her furious looks. "But seriously, only one person per try. If I dealt with multiple people at once, this would be over way too soon."

With that said, Lucy and Lana finished cleaning their tongues and turned to Lynn. "Who do you think should go next?" Lucy inquired, catching Lynn off-guard.

"Whoever you choose, we'll understand," Lana added.

But just before the tomboy could give the duo a definite answer, somebody shouted "I'll go," causing everyone to turn to the source of the voice. The one who said that was none other than Lola, who came out of hiding with her arm raised as high as possible.

"Lola, no!" Lana exclaimed in shock and horror.

And as the rest of the family gaped at the sight, Cristina looked equally shocked as Lola reluctantly walked forward to the ghoul-ish freak. _"So, not only did I traumatize Lola,"_ the redhead thought as the ex-diva reached her and stood her ground as defiantly as possible. _"But now she's practically suicidal, with a death wish."_

But then she smirked with glee. _"Man, that day was far more productive than I thought!"_

"Now listen up, you octopus-monster-freak!" Lola hissed, actually sounding like herself for once. "You have hurt my family, specially my younger sister, for far too long!"

"Wait, I thought Lana was the older one," Cristina remarked, raising an eyebrow.

"That doesn't matter at this point!" Lola growled in return as Cristina's shock collar beeped. "What matters is that I'll be up next, and even if I know I'm not going to be able to do anything to you, I'll at least try to buy my family some time!"

"Hey, now that she mentions that, why are we standing here doing nothing?" Lucy pointed out. "Come on, she may beat us up alone, but together, she stands no chance!"

Then there was silence... "Is nobody going to question that logic?" Luna inquired.

"Well, that's usually Lisa's job," Lynn remarked, before pointing at the rubble the little genius was hiding at. "But she's kinda unavailable at the moment."

So the Loud family ran towards Cristina as she grabbed and lifted Lola, before her shock collar promptly electrocuted the duo. The redhead, of course, was unaffected, while Lola twitched in agony. "Those who don't obey by will," she said as part of the electricity reached her tentacled appendages.

Once the electricity reached their tips, Cristina aimed her tentacles at the family and shot lighting balls at the family, who were basically paralyzed in place upon being hit by them, horrifying the ex-diva. "Will obey by force!" the redhead finished with a malicious smirk.

"Oh come on, since when can you do that?!" Lana loudly complained, catching Cristina's attention. "I mean, the tentacles are one thing, but what you just did is something else!"

Cristina, however, just laughed at Lola's sudden defiance. "You know, I had the feeling you didn't know your priorities, but now I know it's true!" the redhead said before leaning towards Lola, her grin turning sadistic as she did. "I mean, I have your twin sister in my hand, and I'm about to break her, yet your first though is to complain about what I can do? Seriously?"

"Let Lola go!" Lana hissed, trying to move in vain. "She's suffered enough by your hands!"

"See? That's how a sibling should act! Protective and caring towards their younger siblings!" Cristina remarked, before tightening her grip around Lola's neck. "Not abusive or malicious, like the rest of you. I mean, just thinking about it makes me so angry!"

Then the grip tightened so much, Lola desperately tried to grasp some air as her skin started to turn blue. "Guys, don't make her angry!" the ex-diva shrieked, trying to converse as much air as possible. "For my sake, please don't!"

"For your sake?" Cristina repeated, loosening her grip a bit. "For your sake!?" and then she threw the girl onto the ground, wherein she grabbed her legs, lifted them, then started to stomp her crotch as she hissed, "What about Lincoln's sake, huh? What about his sake?! While you all focused only on your own sakes, Lincoln never focused on any sake but yours! While you haven't had a shred of decency to repay his kindness, you instead abuse him in order to further your own goals, or for trivial nonsense!"

"Wait, are you implying that our previous abuse of Lincoln is part of the reason you've been torturing us?!" Luan asked, putting 2 and 2 together.

"Oh, that's just one of the reasons why I hate you all so much, and why you deserve to be turned into pathetic, broken shells of your former selves!" the redhead barked, before stopping what she was doing.

And then she moved one of her tentacles all the way from Lola's head to her crotch. "In fact, I think it's about time this little bitch here learned how it feels to be a puppet!"

Without warning, Cristina inserted her tentacle up the diva's crotch, who shrieked in pure horror as everybody who watched it covered their crotches and winced. The Louds themselves, however, could only watch as the tentacle went up and blood went down from the place of insertion, and Lola cried and twitched.

"So, is it me, or does this seem familiar..." Cristina remarked before turning to a particular Loud. "Luan?"

The comedian's eyes grew wide as Lincoln, watching from the rubble alongside Ronnie Anne and Lisa, could only wonder how the heck they would be able to get out of this one. Lynn and Lola were basically down in the breaking department, so everybody else was left. Not to mention that as he currently looked, the boy could do basically nothing against the ghoul-oid as she released his family, who promptly attacked her in unison...

But then...

"Lincoln!"

The boy and Ronnie turned to the voice, and saw it were Mrs. Johnson, Bobby and Carol, who immediately went to their side. "How much did we miss?" Mrs. Johnson inquired.

"Well, your daughter's kinda using my younger sister as a twisted variation of a hand puppet-" Lincoln awkwardly and reluctantly answered.

"See? I told you they should've made that damn elevator faster!" Carol complained.

"Now, Carol, watch your language," Bobby told the blonde before pointing at Lisa. "There are children in here!"

"I'm mentally capable of handling a little bit of swearing!" Lisa growled, slapping away Bobby's finger.

"Shush, Lisa, let the adults talk, okay?" the ditz replied.

The little genius promptly pulled her eyelid and took out her tongue at the teenager.

"Anyway, what do you need?" Lincoln asked, right before remembering the elephant in the room. "Come to think of it, what are you even doing here?"

"I already told you, Lincoln, I need to keep an eye on my daughter. And as I can see, it seems I failed to do that properly," Mrs. Johnson replied, giving her ghoul daughter a look of regret as she effortlessly beat up the Loud family. "And I think this might be of help."

The redheaded woman reached for her pocket and took out a syringe with a purple liquid inside. "It's some more ghoul serum, and when we found it, the serum was inside a locket saying it was meant for Ronnie Anne," the woman explained as Ronnie went closer to the syringe.

"So she wanted me to turn into the same abomination as her... But why?" Ronnie asked, looking at her brother.

"That doesn't matter right now, Ronnie," Bobby told his sister. "What matters is that there's only one thing we can do: Either you take the serum and become the same as Cristina, or we all die by her hand."

And then Ronnie flinched and took a step back. "You want me to turn into a ghoul?!" she exclaimed in horror. "I don't want to turn into the same abomination that Cristina turned into!"

"And you won't!" Lincoln stated, going to Ronnie's side. "There has to be another way!"

"Lincoln, there is no other way!" Carol sternly stated. "You're not a fighter, I'm not a fighter, nobody other than Ronnie has any chance of dealing with Cristina at this point! I mean..."

Carol reached for her back and took out a knife, causing everybody to jump back in fear. "You could try to do something with this knife, but I doubt it would do anything significant," and then she noticed the reaction. "Oh come on, after everything that's happened, I should as well be prepared for anything."

Lincoln and Ronnie thought about it as Cristina was electrocuted once again, while overlooking the defeated Loud family. Or at the very least, the badly bruised Loud family. "You know, this is pretty disappointing compared to what I had in mind," Cristina remarked, shaking her head as Lana clung to Lynn's side and the family tried to give her a glare of defiance. "I mean, you got the "extremely in pain" schtick done with, but you still need to beg for your lives as I destroy everything you love.

Then, she turned to Luna and Luan. "Isn't that right, Luna and Luan?" Cristina asked with a sadistic smirk. "After all, you two have grown so close to each other..."

"...What are you talking about?" Luan asked, trying as hard as she could to maintain her defiant glare.

"Oh, you two were quite the adventure, let me tell you!" Cristina started, scratching her head with a wide smile as she spoke. "First, they started by dating each other in the virtual sim dating game, and wouldn't you know it, they clicked in an instant!"

"N-No way!" Luan exclaimed.

And Cristina continued, "And then came the next couple of advancements: hugging each other, calling each other cute little pet names, and just generally try to go on a date. And though that didn't go quite as well, they still managed to get something close enough in the end-"

"H-How?" Luna inquired in utter disbelief.

"And then, it happened," the redhead crossed her arms and flashed a look of delight while shedding a couple tears. "They held each other close, slowly leaned towards each other, and at last, they had their first kiss-"

"Now wait just a minute! You shouldn't know about any of that!" Luna proclaimed, stomping the ground as she blushed like crazy. "How could you even manage to learn all of that stuff if Lori wasn't even around when half of those things happened?!"

Cristina just chuckled, seemingly being amused by the remark from the athlete. "Ohoho, my dear Loud family..."

Then she turned to the camera, and put on a fairly stern look as she firmly stated, "A puppet doesn't have to see itself as such before it can be used."

While that line sent chills to basically everybody, Lori and Leni were particularly affected by it, though in different ways. Leni clenched her teeth, greatly annoyed at the-obvious in hindsight-revelation that Cristina only saw her as yet another pawn, while Lori was confused and horrified, processing the fact that she was a pawn all this time and she was never the wiser.

"That's it, we're going up there," Leni stated before giving Lori a stern look. "Standing her like complete morons is what we would do before, but now, we have the ability to fight back, and the obligation of protecting our family is a big factor."

Though initially shocked at Leni's surprisingly smart suggestion, Lori quickly shook it off, nodded and followed the teenager to the walls, which she started to climb as Lori-remembering she had wings-got an idea. She spread her wings, flew up, and grabbed Leni.

"I got a quicker way of getting up," Lori said as Leni gave her a surprised look.

With that explanation done, Leni gave Lori a htumbs up and smiled as the duo flew up to the battlefield.

 _Back with Cristina and Luan..._

"Luan, Luan, Luan..." Cristina repeated as she slowly, almost gently, caressed Luan's cheeks. "First, you make me hate you with all of my passion. And now, you dare make me care about you and your relationship with Luna? Just what else are you willing to do to piss me off?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Luan spat... Literally.

But Cristina wasn't fazed. She just wiped off the spit and tightened. "You were the one behind the Prankpocalypse, weren't you?" Cristina asked as Luan spat out some blood, followed by the sound of her bones cracking. "The infamous prankpocalypse that Ronnie Anne told me about? She told me how you were willing to do all of that to your family, just for a cheap joke-"

"Leave her alone!" Luna shouted, gathering enough strength to stand up. "Please! I'll do anything you want, just let Luan go!"

The redhead looked down, and seeing Luna shivering and crying at the prospect of losing Luan, Cristina smiled before giving her condition: "Stay quiet and watch her suffer, that's all I'm willing to offer."

And then she turned back to Luan, almost as if she completely disregarded what just happened. "So tell me, Luan, if you were crazy enough to do the Prankpocalypse..." then, Cristina's eyes turned black, and she seemingly started to cry tears as she leaned closer and closer to Luan's face. "Are you crazy enough to kill those who would oppose you? Kill your own family to reach your own goal?"

One of the redhead's tentacles grabbed Luan's head and made her turn to her family, who could only watch in horror as the redhead asked, "Would you kill Lynn? Lana? Lisa? Lola? Your own girlfriend, Luna?"

Then she turned her back to her face, which looked absolutely furious and serious. "Kill Ronnie Anne?" Cristina asked, narrowing her eyes. "Would you kill any of those... Just to get Lincoln's love?"

But before she could answer, Cristina closed Luan's mouth and grabbed her teeth. "You know what?" the redhead asked, returning to her sadistic insanity almost instantly. "I'm not even going to give you a chance to lie for your life." then she tightened her hold... "A person like you, who spits out nothing but lies, doesn't deserve the ability to speak coherently."

With almost no effort, and with Lincoln, Lisa and Ronnie Anne just turning back to the fight, Cristina ripped off Luan's teeth as the comedian shrieked from pain, blood coming out of her mouth as Luna fell to her knees and cried her heart out, looking at the ground in regret. The redhead, however, simply crushed the teeth while flashing a smirk.

"Enjoy eternal silence," the redhead sneered as one of her tentacles reached for Lola. "and take your worthless whore of a sister with you."

The tentacle grabbed and swiftly pulled out Lola from Cristina's arm, followed by the duo being thrown back at Luna and Lana. But while Luna managed to catch Luan, Lana missed her twin and saw her crash-land next to Lynn.

From what Luna could see, Luan was close to fainting, with her eyes turning soulless and coughing blood from her mouth. "Luna..." Luan blurted, blinking twice.

"Luan?" Luna replied, hugging and brushing the comedian's hair. "W-What is it? Tell me, please tell me!"

"Cristina... Was quite... The jawbreaker," Luan said, weakly chuckling to her joke.

Luna soon followed, shedding tears. "That wasn't funny... You jerk..." Luan soon added.

"I know, I just..." Luna stammered, unsure of what she could say next. "I didn't want you to pass out without having made me laugh one more time."

Though it took her a while, Luan soon returned the hug, and promptly whispered "Thank you..." to Luna's ear before she fell unconscious.

"No problem, Love," Luna answered, and when Luan failed to respond, she started to panic. "L-Love?" then she saw Luan was motionless and Luna tried to shake her awake as she shed tears. "C-Come on, Love, wake up-!"

"Oh, stop being such a crybaby about it, will ya?" Cristina complained, catching Luna's attention. "This is such a cliche! She just fell unconscious! I bet that after everything's over, she's going to wake up, you'll rejoice that she's alive, yaddah yaddah yaddah, lame stuff like that."

Luna narrowed her eyes as she settled Luan on the ground, and closed her mouth.

"Although, if I could ask you something," Cristina said, once again catching Luna's attention. "If she really were to die, why would you even care? And I don't mean in the lover or romantic partner context, I'm asking you in the general context: I mean, she spews pathetic puns like no business, she laughs at everything regardless of whether it's funny or not, she caused the freaking Prankpocalypse, if anything you should be happy that she's potentially dead-"

"Shut your damn mouth!" Luna snapped, stomping the ground. This sole action was enough to get Cristina to shut up and take a step back. "She's my sister... My lover... And I did nothing to help her..."

Then the rockstar stood up and reached for her back as she ran towards Cristina. "But this time..." she hissed.

"How sad, she's so grief-stricken she has a death wish," Cristina mentally chuckled as she ran after Luna.

The redhead immediately tried to stop when Luna took out her trustworthy guitar, the same one she accidentally hit Luan with. "This time, you won't get away with it!" Luna shouted at the top of her lungs.

Obviously, the redhead was shocked at the revelation. "Where did you-?!"

But before she could finish, Luna kneed her in the groin before smacking her with her guitar so hard, the ghoul girl was sent flying to the satellite, causing her to get electrocuted and making it destabilize a little in the process. And as Luna caught her breath, she fell to her knees and dropped her guitar as her family cheered and rejoiced.

 _"Luan... I'm sorry I couldn't help you..."_ Luna thought, glancing at the unconscious comedian as she approached her. _"But hopefully... I can join you, wherever you go-"_

Suddenly, Cristina came out of nowhere, appeared right in front of Luna, and stated "Wish granted" in a muffled tone, right before she inserted a pair of earpieces on Luna's ears. The pieces promptly unleashed an incredibly loud series of noises before exploding, leaving Luna not only deaf but also on the brink of falling into unconsciousness.

Knowing this, the rockstar crawled to the comedian while Cristina just watched, and then Luna smiled as she grabbed Luan's hand, right before she fell unconscious. With that done, the rejoice died as Cristina spat out some teeth and recovered soon afterwards.

"I'm going to be honest, that caught me off-guard," the redhead said as she stretched. "But a simple attack like that won't put me down, darlings."

Then, taking a look at the sight, Cristina basically chuckled to herself. "A comedian who can't talk, and a musician who can't hear," she remarked, before giving the Louds a glare and smirk. "Irony can be quite the bitch sometimes, can't she?"

The redhead immediately dashed straight to Lucy and blocked the punches she threw. "Hey, Lucy," she said, tightening her grip on the goth's hands. "Could you give me a hand?"

Then she effortlessly broke Lucy's hands, and proceeded to break her fingers next before she broke both of Lynn's legs, followed by kneeing Lana in the groin. She hadn't done that in a while, after all.

"Alright, these should be enough to break that annoying little excuse of a genius," the redhead thought as she looked at the rubble Lisa and the others were hiding at.

She quickly ran over there, then blocked Carol's attempt to stab her with one of her tentacles. "Darling, don't be so predictable," she said with a hint of disappointment before she snatched the knife and handed it to Lincoln as she smacked both Carol and Bobby with her tentacles. "You may need this, baby. But not right now, since I'm invincible and stuff."

Lincoln eyed the knife, then looked back at Cristina to see her grabbing and lifting Lisa while blowing him a kiss, which made him wince while the redhead left. "Lisa Loud," Cristina said, giving Lisa a confident smirk. "It's been a while since we met in person, hasn't it?"

"Whatever you have in store for me, I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of breaking me!" Lisa vehemently spat.

"Oh trust me, Lisa dear," Cristina leaned closer to Lisa's face. "I'll break you, one way or another."

And then they kissed, with Lisa trying her hardest to break off the kiss as Cristina's tentacles restrained her. Then those same tentacles held her high once Cristina ended the kiss.

"Everybody please take a look at this girl, Lisa Loud," the redhead said as Lisa looked around with fear. "Self-proclaimed genius, incredibly smart little brat..."

Then Cristina turned to Lincoln as she stated, with a smug smile, "And yet another lover of Lincoln."

The boy and Ronnie Anne flinched at the statement, while everybody else stared in shock as Lisa tried to defend herself, only to have her mouth blocked by the redhead's tentacles. "Oh, I can recall the moment so clearly," Cristina said, her tone growing vicious and furious as she lowered Lisa to meet her face-to-face. "You two were all alone at the arena, or so you thought, and so you confessed your love for Lincoln. You told him about it as passionately as possible, and even gave him a kiss on the lips."

Next, Cristina turned to Ronnie, who narrowed her eyes as the redhead continued. "But just as you thought you could get away with it, Ronnie Anne appeared, having listened everything," then she turned back to Lisa. "Do you have any justification for what you did? For stealing a kiss from your brother and confessing your love for him while his girlfriend stood nearby? _Can you justify that_?"

"S-She was hidden in the shadows!" Lisa argued once the tentacles released her mouth. "There was no way I could've known she was there!"

Unfortunately, the tentacles blocked her mouth again while Cristina just shook her head. "That doesn't matter at this point," she stated before grabbing Lisa by the neck. "What matters is that you must be punished for what you've done!"

The redhead pinned the brunette to the ground, then started to punch and kick her repeatedly while everybody else just watched. And just for extra measure, Cristina was electrocuted again, sending yet another shockwave that paralyzed everybody present.

"You're the kind of girl that doesn't deserve to love or be loved!" the redhead snarled, right before kicking Lisa's groin. "A girl who's willing to manipulate her siblings, use them as guinea pigs, and steal her brother's love is the worst kind of scum!"

Then she kneed her in the gut. "That's why you deserve this torture!"

And then she was launched high into the sky. "That's why you deserve this torment!"

"And that's why..." Cristina said before jumping as high as possible.

And when she reached Lisa, the redhead lifted her leg and then swiftly kicked Lisa in the head as she shouted at the top of her lungs:

"You deserve to die!"

Lisa was sent plummeting to the ground, leaving behind a large crater once she hit the floor. Once Cristina landed and the smoke dispersed, however, she saw that not only was Lisa still alive-if greatly bruised-but she was able to stand despite the hit in the groin.

"Wow, you're one sturdy daughter of a son of a bitch," the redhead remarked, sounding genuinely impressed. "Seriously, that crash should've killed you instantly-"

"Shut up," Lisa said.

Though surprised at first, Cristina soon regained he composure and gave a smug answer. "Heh, typical: when you're cornered with no way out, you try to get people to shut up to hide your fragile ego-"

"I said shut up."

Cristina, shockingly enough, obliged and flinched at the statement.

"Just... Just kill me..." Lisa meekly stated, lifting her face to reveal her depressed, defeated stare.

The family's eyes widened as Lisa stood in place and looked back at the ground, fully ready to take whatever the ghoul girl threw at her. Even Cristina could only look in surprise as Lisa said the next in a frail, almost exhausted tone:

"I get it, alright? I know, I'm useless. I'm worthless. I failed to use my brainpower for good, so I might as well be gone, right? There's no need to hammer the point. There's no need to repeat yourself. I'd rather die... Than listen to your nonsense anymore... You now have the power to get rid of me, so why don't you use it, and save not only yourself, but myself, from this continued torment?"

Not having anything to say at the remark, Cristina aimed her hand at Lisa just as her shock collar got ready to electrocute herself, with Lisa standing motionless all the while.

 _"I'm about to murder a 4-year-old girl who has essentially lost the will to live,"_ Cristina thought, right before her shock collar electrocuted her and charged her hand, upon which her frown turned into a smirk. _"This day has been more productive then I thought it would be!"_

She then shot a lightingball from her palm, and watched as it nearly reached the girl... Only to take a step back when something seemingly caught and threw the lightingball away. And that something, or someone, was none other than Leni, who was soon joined by Lori. In that instant, the Loud family's frowns and despair were replaced with hope, while Cristina took a couple more steps backwards in both disbelief and horror.

"W...What is the meaning of this?!" Cristina asked, stomping the ground and clenching her teeth. "I'm about to kill your youngest non-baby sister, and just now you decide to show up?!"

"Shut, your damn mouth!" Leni hissed.

The redhead flinched and Lori immediately went to Lisa's side. She grabbed her and took the little genius back to hiding while Leni remained behind and got ready to fight. This immediately gave Cristina an idea of why she was doing that...

"D-Do you really think you have a chance of stopping me? Do you really think that will change anything?!" Cristina hissed, trying to maintain her "seemingly invincible mastermind" façade. "You acted worse than Lola did! You used your family as puppets to get closer to your goal! You've basically been doing the same thing I've done since all this madness started! Do you really think that after everything that's happened, that whatever slim chance you have of beating me will redeem you in the eyes of your family?"

However, Leni simply chuckled before giving the redheaded ghoul a smirk. "Bitch, I don't care about redemption at this point," she stated. "I just want to give the "kill the redheaded skank who made us suffer so much" idea a shot."

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Nice try," Leni mockingly complimented.

The fashionista promptly smacked Cristina hard enough to send her flying into some rubble, right before some sharp feathers struck the rdhead, before exploding right as Lori went to Leni's side.

"Sorry for arriving late to the party," Lori told Leni as she brushed her hair affectionately. "I had to take care of some business first."

"It's okay, just don't let your guard down," Leni replied.

The reason for why came soon afterwards: when the smoke from the explosion dispersed to reveal Cristina was still alive. Very bruised and basically bleeding a lot of blood, but ultimately alive. And even the bruises and injured tentacles didn't last long, as those recovered quickly while the redhead caught her breath.

"Oh come on, she can regenerate injuries?!" Lori complained, stomping the ground. "That's so unfair!"

"Touche," Leni added, though with a hint of excitement.


	48. Battle of Ghouls

Again, back where we left off, Cristina and Leni stood their ground, waiting for the other to pull their first move. Leni put on a smug smile, while Cristina narrowed her eyes and shivered a little while maintaining a serious look. As this all happened, Lori spoke with Mrs Johnson, Bobby and Carol about something, while Ronnie watched and Lincoln comforted Lisa.

"Hey, Lori?" Ronnie blurted, catching the winged teen's attention. "Shouldn't you be, I don't know, helping Leni deal with Cristina?"

"Yeah, now that I think about it, maybe you should immediately focus on helping her, Lori," Lincoln added, giving the teenager a worried look. "If there's anything I learned from my time at the hospital, is that leaving anybody alone with Cristina spells bad news."

"No, there isn't much to worry about," Lori answered, glancing at the duo with relief. "I believe I know how it's gonna go next: they're going to talk for a bit, maybe talk about some nonsense to demoralize each other, and then they'll actually fight, with some more talking in between."

With that in mind, Lori went back to the discussion while Lisa, Ronnie and Lincoln looked at the duo's "fight" with worry.

"So, this is how it's going to be, huh?" Cristina asked, narrowing her eyes at the ghouled teenager. "After I took the trouble to guide you and some of your sisters to this point, after I taught you how to change your family for the better, after giving you the ghoul powers and the inability to feel pain, you'll repay me by kicking my ass?"

"Well, you were kind of a massive douchebag while you did all of that," Leni replied with a chuckle. "Plus, the fact that you hurt my family so damn much in your pursuit to reach your endgame... That's just not something I can forgive. I may be an insufferable bitch myself, but I'd never break my family for something unrelated to them!"

"Why is everybody still saying that shipping is unrelated to the Loud family?" the redhead mused in exasperation. "They're basically plastered everywhere there's shipping, with poor Lincoln stuck in the middle of it!"

"Good lord, would you stop whining about that stuff?" Leni ordered, crossing her arms. "Gosh, you're even more shallow than I thought."

"Says the fashion-oriented teenage girl," Cristina replied, rolling her eyes. "Besides, you dare call me shallow, but you have to take a look at yourself. You're the girl who manipulated all of her sisters into becoming your glorified vision of who they should be, disregarding their own desires and wishes. And now, they lay defeated, broken, nearby us. And you did nothing to help them."

Leni left the battle stance for a moment, then glanced at her sisters nearby: the only ones who weren't unconscious outside of Lisa were basically Lana, Lucy and Lynn, who tried to comfort each other while they could only watch the fight with worry.

"D-Don't listen to her nonsense!" Lynn shouted, catching Leni's attention as she nervously added, "We're not happy with being forced to change, but you do have a point, Leni, you just tried to fix the problem in the wrong way!"

"Y-Yes! After... After coming out with my liking of princess pony, I've felt a lot more relaxed! After Lynn decided to play her sports outside and not turn everything into a sport, she's found it a lot more bearable that way! And if I recall correctly, I think Lisa was even working on something to try and help us specifically, instead of some science-oriented goal!" Lucy hesitantly argued, tears falling down her cheek. "So, changing us really was for the better! It's your methods that were wrong!"

"Y-Yeah! What they said!" Lana added, with Lola nodding in agreement. "Yes, you may have done that stuff in the worst way possible, but everything Cristina has done has been far worse than anything you've ever did!"

"Wow, I sure hope you brought a fire shield, 'cause it's going to rain hellfire down here in a moment," Cristina joked, though she only managed to giggle once before her tone turned hostile and angry. "But even then, I believe you may be missing an important thing she's done. 'Cause there is one thing Leni has done that's just as bad as what I've done."

Everybody, except for Leni and the quartet of Lori, Mrs. Johnson, Bobby and Carol nearby, flinched at the suggestions. And it didn't help when Cristina revealed just what it was:

"Lincoln wasn't acting like himself when he ravaged me. In fact, I kinda could see some... green glow in his eyes. And then I remembered that you still have the master bracelet, don't you?"

Leni gave a quick glance at her right arm, which still held the master bracelet.

"So, then I remembered something else: I saw one time you using the "would you kindly" phrase to manipulate Lori," Cristina continued, earning a glare from Leni in response. "So, since Lori also got a green glow in her eyes, then I realized what that meant."

Lincoln immediately covered his ears and hid behind the rubble, catching the quartet's attention just as Cristina revealed what she was talking about:

"While I had Lincoln trapped in my room, you used the master bracelet to take control of him, and made him rape me!"

The quartet flinched and gasped while Lincoln tried to ignore the revelation, Lisa covered her mouth in disbelief while Ronnie was left speechless, and the remaining conscious sisters-oh and the parents too-just looked at Leni in complete disraught and shock as the teenager's hair shadowed her eyes and she looked at the ground.

"Yes, that's right: You took a single chance to control Lincoln, and you used that chance to make him rape me as violently as possible, until I was pleading him to destroy him! So not only would you manipulate your own family to reach your vision, but you'd also do it to your poor younger brother, for no reason other than satisfaction," Cristina argued. "Am I too far off?"

The teenager remained silent.

"Hehehe, left ya speechless, did I? Well then, tell me, Leni," Cristina said, her pupils shrinking as she flashed a demented smile. "With all of that in mind, between the two of us, who really is the most shallow?"

"You, obviously," Leni answered almost nonchalantly, lifting her head to reveal a partially amused smirk.

Needless to say, the redhead was left baffled by the teenager's response. "B-But... But you were-" Cristina stammered.

"Now, I want you to listen carefully, darling," Leni started, while the sounds of ambulances could be heard alongside Lori's wings flapping. "You do have a point, in that we both did very reprehensible things in order to reach our goals: We manipulated people. We raped people. But the reason we did those things are vastly different-"

"S-Shut up! It's too late to justify your actions!" Cristina hissed, baring her fangs. "Everybody knows what you did! Nothing you say will ever work as a justification!"

"I'm not trying to justify anything, you dumbass, I'm just trying to explain things," Leni casually retorted. "Because, believe it or not, a massive manipulative liar like you can't exactly be trust to tell the truth. Anyway, I did those things because I wanted my family to change for the better, and to make you pay for what you've done. But you? The main reason you did all of the atrocities you have done is because you were upset by some smutty fanfiction. That's really pathetic."

A crimson aura burst from Cristina, who got ready to attack Leni as the teenager continued to speak.

"And all your blabbering is nothing more than a pitiful attempt to gather sympathy and fool people into thinking you're a well meaning girl, because for all of your talk about protecting Lincoln and everybody else from the dangers of shipping, and how you'll make sure everything becomes better after "ending all of shipping", which is simply an impossible goal, all you've ever done is bring pain to my family and Lincoln himself. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, your ideal desire for Lincoln and Ronnie to get together makes you a shipper as well. So any way you look at it, you're no better than the people you desire to destroy. If anything, you're the same as them."

The redhead suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran straight for Leni, who morphed her right arm into a hammer as she waited for the redhead to get close. And once she was close enough, Cristina tried to attack Leni with her tentacles, only for her to block all the attacks and even squash the same tentacles under her hammer, causing Cristina to scream in pain.

"Nice try," Leni mockingly complimented.

The fashionista promptly smacked Cristina hard enough to send her flying into some rubble, right before some sharp feathers struck the rdhead, before exploding right as Lori went to Leni's side.

"Sorry for arriving late to the party," Lori told Leni as she brushed her hair affectionately. "I had to take care of some business first."

"It's okay, just don't let your guard down," Leni replied.

The reason for why came soon afterwards: when the smoke from the explosion dispersed to reveal Cristina was still alive. Very bruised and basically bleeding a lot of blood, but ultimately alive. And even the bruises and injured tentacles didn't last long, as those recovered quickly while the redhead caught her breath.

"Oh come on, she can regenerate injuries?!" Lori complained, stomping the ground. "That's so unfair!"

"Touche," Leni added, though with a hint of excitement.

And as Cristina continued to catch her breath, she mentally realized what she was doing wrong:

 _"Wait, what am I even doing? I don't need to fight them physically, I'm way too weak to do any noteworthy damage! No, my forte has always been mental damage, so if I want to make sure I get out of this fight alive, I must hurt their minds until they snap like a twig!"_

Then she remembered she had a special helmet on her head.

 _"This thing! This will help me deal with those two with ease! More specifically, deal with Leni. This is going to be fun."_

With her breath fully caught, Cristina chuckled to herself while Lori and Leni raised an eyebrow and got ready to counterattack. "So, you managed to get under my skin," the redhead started. "Frankly, I'd rather have something like Lincoln's meat get inside it, but I got to give credit where credit's due, I might actually have to fight seriously right now!"

Leni and Lori flinched at the remark, though Lori's was more notable. "W-Wait, you were holding back when you did all those things?!" Lori asked, with fear highly prominent in her tone.

"Oh, Lori, you're quite the Luan today, aren't you!" Cristina remarked before pulling off a laughter worthy of a noblewoman. "Of course I was holding back! If I had gone all out as soon as I could, your sisters would be dead right where they-"

But then she saw that the rest of the Loud family was basically nowhere to be seen. "Where did they go?!"

"Oh, right, I forgot to mention that while you and Leni were busy chit-chatting, Mrs. Johnson, Bobby and Carol helped me take our parents and sisters to the nearest hospital available," Lori answered, right before she was surrounded by a light blue, icey aura.

"What about Clyde?" the redhead pointed out, crossing her arms and tilting her head. "He was here too, right?"

"He left too," Lori hastily answered. "Point is, you won't get a chance to hurt our family, or Clyde, again! We're going to do everything we can to stop you right here, right now!"

"Well said, honey!" Leni remarked, gently patting Lori in the back.

"Did... Did you just call me honey?" Lori asked, blushing and giggling like a high school girl as her icey aura dissipated.

"Yes, Lori, I did just call you that," Leni answered, blushing as she twiddled her fingers. "You know, ever since this all started, I've been nothing but cruel and mean to you and everybody. Even when my heart rot away, I still found you endearing, and I feel like I owe everybody an apology. I'm sorry."

"Oh, Leni, I'm afraid a simple apology won't fix your mistakes," Lori replied, brushing Leni's hair affectionately. "However, I'm sure we could reach an agreement on what you can do for me..."

And as the duo continued to talk, Cristina could only look with annoyance as she waited for them to finish. Come on, she had to hurt and get hurt in return, she had no time to listen to romantic nonsense!

 _"For love's sake, they're going to be at this for a while, aren't they?"_ the redhead though with exasperation, then sighed in relief when Lori and Leni promptly looked at her again. _"Phew, crisis averted!"_

"Now go on, beat her up," Leni said, pointing at the redheaded ghoul.

"Wait, I thought we were going to do this together," Lori said, giving Leni a confused look. "You'll seriously let me be the one to beat the crap out of her?"

The fashionista, however, just giggled at the notion, causing Lori to blush. "Darling, it's been quite the ride, and I'd like for you to enjoy yourself before crap hits the fan again," she explained before giving Lori a kiss on the cheek. "So be my guest, beat up Cristina as much as you like."

After returning the kiss, Lori spread her wings and flew straight towards Cristina, who simply stood in place with her arms crossed. Then, Lori threw some sharp feathers at the redhead, which successfully struck her tentacles just as Lori punched her in the face. Not that it mattered, since Cristina flashed a malicious smirk before both her eyes and the helmet glew green, which was followed by Cristina punching Lori and sending a green torrent of electricity right across her body.

"Baby!" Leni exclaimed as she morphed her arm into a hammer and ran for Cristina. Once she got close enough, she smacked the redhead away and went to Lori's side. "Goodness gracious, Lori, please tell me you're okay! I-I honestly didn't think she would do that, I just-!"

Then, Leni was sent far back with a single strike from Lori's wings. "H-Honey?" Leni asked, grabbing and inspecting her cheek to see that yes, she was bleeding. Not only that, but she was actually in pain. "W-Why did you do that? A-And how could I feel it?"

Shortly afterwards, Lori faced Leni to reveal her eyes were not only glowing, but her eyes became soulless and her sclera turned green. This was followed by Cristina laughing derisively, instantly catching both Leni's attention and rage.

"So, crazy thing, see his weird helmet thing I got?" Cristina said, pointing at her glowing helmet. "Not only does it let me take control of your girlfriend, but it also lets me do this!"

Cristina snapped her fingers and then a bunch of copies of herself popped out of thin air and surrounded the ghoulish teenager, who took a look around to better know what she was facing. All the clones were dressed just like her sisters: With one dressed like Luna, one dressed like Lana, and so on and so forth. Though oddly enough, there was no clone based on Lori.

"Besides, when I turned off your pain receptors, or whatever those stupid things are called, that was a simple white lie," the redhead added with a smug grin. "Any ghoul can hurt you, but all I rally did was temporarily numb you to pain. And perhaps, the numbness just ran out..."

"So that's how you're going to do this?" Leni asked, crossing her arms. "Throw a hissy fit when I point out the flaws in your plan, then create a bunch of clones of yourselves dressed as my sisters and mind-control Lori into becoming another one of your pawns?"

"Leni, we both know that even as a ghoulish abomination, I'm very much too damn weak to really be considered a threat by fellow ghouls, specially you," Cristina pointed out.

"So a ghoul can actually hurt Cristina?!" Ronnie said, getting an idea before revealing her arm to Lincoln. "What are you waiting for, Lame-O? Inject that dang thing into my bloodstream!"

But the boy refused to inject the serum. "Ronnie, I still think we should leave this as a last resort," he explained, scratching the back of his head. "Let's keep watching, okay?"

"Dang it, Lincoln, your hesitation is going to be the death of us!" Ronnie complained, covering her arm again.

The boy couldn't help but agree as he looked at the serum with worry.

And back with Leni and Cristina, she morphed her arm into a sword as she waited for Cristina to begin the attack. "So, Leni, any last words before my clones and your own girlfriend kill you?"

"Yeah, kiss my ass!" Leni defiantly proclaimed.

"Lamest. Last words. Ever," Cristina stated in disappointment.

Leni was promptly attacked by both the clones and Lori at the same time. Leni managed to dodge Luan-Cristina and Lana-Cristina's attacks before she slashed them in half, followed by her tricking Lynn-Cristina into crashing with Lucy-Cristina and Lola-Cristina, giving her the chance to shizkebabble all three of them with ease. The difficulty soon ramped up when Lori attacked, since Leni had to switch between morphing her arm from a sword to a shield in order to block Lori's feathers and the remaining Cristina clones' attacks.

Luckily, she managed grab Lisa-Cristina and use her as a humanoid shield for Lori's feathers, which exploded upon contact with the clone. Then, without warning, Lisa-Cristina and Lynn-Cristina came out of nowhere and smacked Leni in the back.

"What the?! Didn't I kill them already?!" Leni exclaimed in disbelief right before she was stabbed by some of Lori's feathers.

"Stupid little Leni, as long as my helmet works, I can create infinite clones of myself!" Cristina sneered.

And as the remaining Cristina clones popped back into existence, Leni fought Lori on her own, with the winged ghoul managing to slash at Leni multiple times with her feathers. She then smacked her with her wings to the ground, before she tried to kick her back right in the spine. However, Leni blocked the attack with her shield arm and then got back before dodging another barrage of feathers, which struck Lynn-Cristina, Lucy-Cristina and Lana-Cristina, who giggled like madman before they blew up into oblivion.

Then, noticing some rubble nearby, Leni quickly ran for it only for Lori to grab her and pin her to the ground. Then, as she screeched right at her face, Lori was struck by Leni's hammer and sent flying into the remaining Cristina clones, which she viciously tore apart as Leni reached the rubble and held it high. And with the clones returning again, she used the rubble to basically smash all of them into bits, followed by her approaching the distracted Lori with it.

 _"Forgive me for this, Lori!"_

She put the rock on the ground and watched as Lori tried to free herself, without much success. Then, even more Cristina clones popped out of thin air.

 _"Damn it, at this rate this fight's never going to end!"_ Leni thought, clenching her teeth. _"Wait, I don't need to fight! I just got to break Cristina's helmet!"_

So Leni morphed both her arms into swords and dashed straight for Cristina, who just watched as she sent her clones after Leni. Needless to say, they were basically turned into mince meat for their trouble and Leni promptly morphed her hands into hammers to crush Cristina. However, the tentacled ghoul managed to grab the hammers with her tentacles, right before she kicked Leni in the groin.

Briefly wincing in pain, Leni managed to gather enough strength to remain standing, before she kicked Cristina hard enough to stun her and free her arms. With that done, Leni first swung her hammer arm up, sending Cristina straight to the sky, then she jumped just as high for another attack only for Cristina to latch onto her and bite her breasts, with her fangs penetrating through the cloth and skin.

A groan and brief shriek was all that came out of Leni before she headbutted Cristina, morphed her arm into a whip, smacked the redhead into releasing her and then swung her remaining hammer arm at her, sending the redhead straight to the rubble-filled floor. This not only caused her to break some of the rubble in pieces, but it snapped her helmet in half, causing any clones that came out afterwards to cease to exist and Lori to return to her normal self.

The winged ghoul pushed the rubble away, then flew to Leni's side, where she caught her and covered her with her wings as she flew back down. "Leni, are you okay? I honestly have no idea what happened, I just remember Cristina blocking my attack and then-" Lori soon noticed Leni's breasts were bleeding from the fang marks. "W-What did Cristina do to you?! Why are your breasts bleeding?!"

"Relax, baby," Leni said, gently caressing Lori's cheeks as the duo hit the ground. "I managed to crack her helmet, I managed to hurt her too, It's all going to be okay now."

Then...

"Leeeeeeniiiiiiiii!"

Boom went the dynamite. Cristina unleashed an electric wave as a large crimson aura, with electricity going all around it, surrounded her and blew the rubble away. Leni and Lori themselves, however, weren't impressed by the sight: Instead Lori put down Leni on the ground, and got on a battle stance as Leni dusted herself.

"Okay, now let's do this-" Lori said.

"Lori, get out of here," Leni ordered.

"W-Wait, what are you talking about?" Lori asked, giving Leni a surprised look.

"Our sisters need you back at the hospital: They need you to be there in order to have somebody else by their side," Leni explained, putting her now normal hand on Lori's shoulder. "After everything that's happened to them, I think it would be better if they had the company of their oldest sister."

"B-But what are you going to do?!" Lori inquired, grabbing Leni's arms.

"I'll deal with her on my own," Leni answered, sounding unsure herself. "Please, Lori, go keep our sisters company."

"I can't just leave you behind!" Lori stated.

"Dang it, Lori, get your priorities straight!" Leni hissed in return. "Our sisters need you more than I do right now!"

With that said, Lori glanced at Cristina before she turned back to Leni, who gave her a look basically pleading her to leave. She then grabbed Leni's cheeks and, with tears falling down her cheeks, she stated "Don't make me regret this decision" before she spread her wings.

But Leni didn't respond. So she remained silent as she watched Lori release her and fly away to the hospital, while Leni got on a battle stance and stood her ground against the enraged Cristina, who roared like a beast.

" _Our sisters need you more than me,_ " Leni mentally repeated as she gained a smile. " _And besides..._ "

Then, as she and Cristina dashed towards each other, Leni thought:

" _This is what I deserve._ "

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

However, Cristina soon got back up and caught her breath as Leni hit the ground and grabbed her pierced arm, which had been left with a large hole that exposed some bone and viscera, not to mention it was basically left unusable.

" _Heh, figures that I'd end up with a broken arm from that brat,_ " Leni thought in melancholy as she looked at the ground for a brief moment. " _I guess I shouldn't complain, though, after all, this is what I-_ "

Once she looked back up, however, Leni saw that Cristina was nowhere to be seen. And of course, the redhead dropped right on top of Leni and struck her in the back, causing her to shriek in pain.

"Leni!" Lincoln and Ronnie exclaimed in horror.


	49. The Final Battle

**Just a quick notice: From now on, not only are there only 2 chapters left after this one, but I won't put any next chapter previews anymore. Why? Because I used them in order to build hype for the incoming fights, to let you know how things would go out like. But this chapter is it: No more fighting, no more plans, no more agony afterwards. Once this chapter is over, the agony is over, and the last two are more of a breather after everything that's happened.**

 **And given what happens here, a breather is necessary.**

 **Now, I'll keep my word on leaving the thanking everybody in the world for reading this story-and congratulating them in surviving them should they reach the end-but still, I'd like to thank you all again for reading and reviewing this story.**

 **Also, to be honest, I kinda merged this with the next chapter (how else would you explain the insane length?), just to get the story over with. Yes, there are two more chapters after this, but they're more of a wrap-up party than anythinge else.**

 **And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've been waiting for, the grand finale of The Loud Sim Date begins... NOW!**

* * *

" _Leni, I understand why you'd want me to do this, and I'm willing to do as you request,_ " Lori thought, looking at the ground as she shed tears and rubbed her arm. " _But the sad thing is, no matter how much I want to believe it, there's no way you can win. If anything, Cristina will find a way to hurt you, torture you, and she'll leave you battered, broken mess by the time I come back-_ "

Then, without warning, Lori heard a noise and saw she was about to crash with a plane. Luckily, she narrowly dodged the incoming vehicle and she watched it leave as she processed what just happened.

" _I just went past a freaking plane? How high am I flying?_ " the winged ghoul thought, before she remembered her mission. " _No matter, I must reach the hospital as fast as I can!_ "

So the ghouled teenager continued to fly to her destination.

 _Back at the tower..._

Ronnie and Lincoln held each other as the ground violently shook, no doubt from the fight between Leni and the enraged Cristina. "Lame-O, we need to do something!" Ronnie stated, giving Lincoln an angry look as she grabbed his arms and started to shake him. "Your sister won't be able to stall Cristina for long, and we can't just sit here and hide all the time!"

"What else can we do, Ronnie Anne?!" Lincoln snapped, slapping Ronnie hard enough to leave behind a handprint. "Cristina is not human anymore, she's something far beyond our comphrehension! You saw what she did to my sisters, you saw what she's willing to do to reach her goal, and you saw how crazy she is! With all of that in mind, what can we even do that would make a difference?!"

The tomboy failed to come up with an answer, though it wasn't clear if she legitimately had no answer or if she was too shocked from the fact Lincoln slapped her. But nevertheless, the duo decided to focus on the important matter and resumed their watch of the Leni and Cristina fight.

The redheaded ghoul sending a fast barrage of punches and kicks, which Leni was forced to block with her shield arm. And it wasn't like she could use her remaining arm to attack either; Cristina was attacking so fast and so viciously the only thing Leni could think of was to defend.

Then, Cristina somehow fused her tentacles into a large spear-thing, which she used to pierce right through Leni's shield and stab her right in the gut. With that done, Cristina swung Leni high up in the air and separated her tentacle-spear back into her tentacles before she jumped high enough to reach Leni, who immediately smacked the redhead with her remaining arm-now morphed into a hammer-which sent her plummeting to the ground.

However, Cristina soon got back up and caught her breath as Leni hit the ground and grabbed her pierced arm, which had been left with a large hole that exposed some bone and viscera, not to mention it was basically left unusable.

" _Heh, figures that I'd end up with a broken arm from that brat,_ " Leni thought in melancholy as she looked at the ground for a brief moment. " _I guess I shouldn't complain, though, after all, this is what I-_ "

Once she looked back up, however, Leni saw that Cristina was nowhere to be seen. And of course, the redhead dropped right on top of Leni and struck her in the back, causing her to shriek in pain.

"Leni!" Lincoln and Ronnie exclaimed in horror.

 _Back with Lori..._

The winged ghoul landed right outside the hospital and promptly barged in, catching the attention of all the doctors, patients and visitors nearby. However, she barely even noticed them, instead she focused on looking straight for Carol Pingrey.

"Has anybody seen Carol Pingrey around here?" Lori asked, looking at all the people nearby. "About my height, wears a nurse uniform, not a creepy-winged-gargoyle-abomination?"

But nobody gave her an answer. They just stood in place and looked at her in complete terror. "Listen, I know I look absolutely terrifying, but I'm not going to hurt anybody!" the winged ghoul girl complained, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm just looking for a specific nurse!"

And then Carol touched Lori's shoulder and caught her attention. "Lori, you're making quite the scene, you know?" Carol scolded, all while giving the ghoul a stern look. "Follow me before you embarrass yourself anymore."

The winged ghoul put on a pouty face and obliged. So the duo went to the second floor, and stopped in between a series of rooms. "We had to separate your sisters across many rooms, you know, since there's a lot of them," Carol joked, earning a glare from Lori. "Go into any room you wish."

Lori went to the first door she found, and saw Lisa, Lola and Lana inside, each in beds and looking at the ceiling. Lola and Lana were playing rock-paper-scissors, while Lisa was basically unconscious, with a life-support system connected to her. Upon seeing that, Lori took a deep breath in relief and went to the next room.

That room had Lynn and Lucy, alongside Luna and Luan. Lynn and Lucy were watching TV, while Luna and Luan held hands and were apparently sleeping. And unlike the last room, Lynn and Lucy immediately noticed Lori.

"Oh hi, Lori!" Lynn greeted as quietly as possible. "Try to stay quiet, Luna and Luan are sleeping in the non-perverted way."

"I'll keep that in mind," Lori quietly chuckled as she approached the duo. "So, how are you two doing?"

"Good, to an extent," Lucy answered. "My hands are slowly healing, and so are Lynn's legs. For now, we're just hoping we heal eventually while we watch Leni's match on TV."

And then Lori looked at the TV and saw Leni being pinned to the ground by Cristina, who went from being enraged back to her normal, ghoulish state. And though she couldn't hear what she said, since the TV was muted, Lori immediately figured that Leni was calling for her.

Seeing her girlfriend, sister... Sisterfriend was in danger, Lori immediately opened a window, jumped out of it, then spread her wings and flew back to the tower as fast as she could.

 _Back with Leni and Cristina..._

Cristina kicked and twisted Leni's pierced arm while Leni continued to cry and Lincoln and Ronnie watched. Again, what else could the duo do at that point?

"Lori! Help me!" Leni pleaded at the top of her lungs. "Lori please, help me!"

"Yeah, keep calling to your girlfriend! Your master! Your queen! Your goddess!" Cristina chuckled, her voice growing hostile as she added, "But don't even think for a second that she'll come help you! You're alone, Leni, and it's my job to torture and destroy you for your sins!"

"Cristina, everybody's growing sick of your "well meaning crusader" crap!" Leni suddenly hissed in defiance. "Why don't you admit that you're not as well meaning as you say you are, and that you're no better than anybody else? What makes you think you really are better than the rest!"

"The fact I'm doing something to fix my problem!" Cristina shouted at the top of her lungs.

With that said, the ghoulish teenager fell silent and listened as Cristina stopped what she was doing and spoke:

"Think about it, in a world with more than a billion people alive, nobody bothers to try and do anything about what upsets them. They'll whine about it, complain about it, but they'll never raise a finger or try to fix it themselves! They'll just stay quiet and watch everything go by, while the things upsets them remains! Sure, there are times where it's beyond our control, but when people can do something about it, what excuse can they pull off when they get cold feet at the last second, or they don't even give it a shot?"

The teenager failed to think of a response, so she remained silent as Cristina looked at the cloudy sky... And saw Ronnie and Lincoln's faces among the clouds. "Some people do try to do something about their problems, but they either fail repeatedly despite their best efforts," then, the Lincoln in the sky vanished, "Or they try to fix it when it's far too late," the Ronnie in the sky vanished next.

From afar, Ronnie and Lincoln couldn't help but give Cristina a couple of worried looks. It was very clear that she was talking about them, and they couldn't even tell if they agreed with her, or if they wanted her to shut up already. Probably the latter.

With that said and done, Cristina looked at the ground as she bitterly added, "And then there are the people that do try to fix their problems, and even succeed to an extent," then she turned to Leni and gave her a scowl. "But in the process, they make a mistake that almost renders their entire effort to reach their goals completely pointless."

The ghoulish teenager turned to Cristina, and was immediately caught off-guard by the scowl she received. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Is your skull really so thick that you need to be told twice to get anything?!" Cristina hissed, slapping Leni by the back of her head. "You made a great mistake that renders your entire effort pointless!"

"And what would that mistake be?" Leni bitterly growled, refusing to look at the redhead.

"You allowed yourself to be corrupted by your own free will!" Cristina answered, narrowing her eyes. "You had no reason to listen to the voice. You had no reason to follow their instructions. You had no reason to believe. Basically, you had no reason to follow it at all... But you still did. You still listened to them. You still followed their instructions. You still believed in them. And you never even thought about it as if it was a bad move, a bad decision. All just to fix your problems."

Leni became speechless and turned to look at the ground, while Lincoln and Ronnie focused on their own business. "So, this was all nice and all, but I'm afraid the time to speak has come to an end," Cristina stated, right before she grabbin and tightly held Leni's mutated arm. "And It's time that I take away the powers that you have abused for your own needs."

With that said, Leni could barely flinch before Cristina slowly ripped off Leni's right arm. The viscera became visible as Leni's skin was torn apart, and veins became visible as Leni begun screaming in agony... Much to Cristina's indifference. Even when she was annoyed by her screaming before, Cristina now felt nothing as she continued to slowly rip off the arm.

Naturally, the screaming was so loud-fittingly enough-that Ronnie and Lincoln could hear it from their position. And it was an auditory torture to their ears. Leni, who was basically their only hope at this point, was being tortured and broken like everybody else. The situation simply became too dire to let it continue, so Lincoln became determined to inject the ghoul serum on Ronnie's bloodstream. There was no time to hesitate, he had to do it now.

Back with Leni herself, she had an absolutely miserable time as she felt like she was losing control and sense of her arm. To make matters worse, Cristina didn't waste the opportunity to not only rub the girl's failure in her face, but to give her a particular revelation.

"To think the high and mighty Leni would fall so hard, so fast. First, you had ambitions to change your family for the better. For their own good, perhaps. And I was more than happy to help you in disguise. But then, you decided to do things your own way, and now nobody likes you anymore. Now, your family no longer trusts you, and people want to see you suffer. See you in pain. See you in absolute agony, for the crime of letting yourself be so easily convinced to become a douchebag."

And then one of Cristina's tentacles grabbed one of the nearby camera-drones, brought it close to her face, and then stated while flashing a smirk, "You know who you are, you pathetic, petty little pieces of shit."

Then she slapped the camera away and turned back to Leni, before giving her revelation.

"Oh, and by the way, when I told you the ghoul serum would only last for one hour, that was a lie. In fact, everything I've told you up to this point has been a lie, including this exact sentence. Once you turn into a ghoul, you can never go back. Now you'll forever be stuck as what you truly are: A bitch who sacrificed her humanity for a goal she couldn't even come close to approach, and for being stupid enough to _defy_ me, is now helpless under my heel."

She was stuck on the ground, unable to move, unable to defend herself. She was essentially being manually amputated and there wasn't anything she could do but scream and cry. She couldn't even plead for mercy, because unlike everybody else, she knew it wouldn't work.

Eventually, Cristina finally ripped off the arm, and as blood came out of the gapping wound where the arm used to be, Leni basically stopped screaming and hit the ground right before she fell unconscious. Then, with the ghoulish teenager out for the moment, Cristina looked at the severed arm and licked her lips before baring her fangs.

"Now it's time I inherit your power!" she proclaimed at the top of her lungs.

The redhead promptly started to devour the severed arm, all while Lincoln and Ronnie hid behind the rubble and covered their eyes, while the sisters looked away and tried to go to their happy places. Even the fact that it was over pretty quick didn't help matters, since after releasing the now skeletal remains of the arms, Cristina shivered and breathed heavily with a look of delight, all while blood and guts spilled from her mouth.

"Well, that was quite the meal," Cristina remarked, licking her lips before she added, "I haven't eaten this good in a while!"

Then the ghoul turned to the unconscious Leni and gave her a perverted look. "In fact, I don't think I've eaten for quite a while..." her tone grew lustful as she sniffed the fellow ghoul. "And I'm still really hungry..."

Without warning, Ronnie came out of hiding and decked Cristina hard enough to send her flying right into the ground next to the satellite. Ronnie's skin now had dark mahogany patches all around it, her fangs became more prominent, and a long, pointy crimson tail protruded from her backbone.

"If you want to even think about eating Leni, you'll have to get past me!" Ronnie proclaimed as Lincoln took the chance to bring Leni to a safe space.

Cristina, however, just giggled as she seemingly started to eat something. This wasn't enough to get Ronnie to lower her guard, of course, but the newborn ghoul was still unnerved by the nonchalance.

"So," Cristina blurted, giving Ronnie an unimpressed look as she continued to eat. "You became a ghoul too?" she asked, the sounds now turning more visceral as the redhead quickly expressed her disappointment: "Do you really think imitating my tactics will help you at all? You were doing so well before then, Ronnie. You betrayed me. You made it clear you weren't going to follow my footsteps. But now look at yourself, doing the same things I do. Truly, the mighty have fallen."

"W...What are you even eating?" was Ronnie's response, and given Cristina's response of flashing a smirk, she expected it. "There's nothing edible around here for you to eat!"

"Oh, my dear Ronnie, I'm afraid you're wrong," Cristina chuckled.

And when she turned around, it was revealed Cristina's left hand was missing it's middle and ring finger, which Cristina was basically eating at that point. Not only that, but she stripped the fingers of all their skin and viscera, leaving nothing but the bone behind.

"I'm perfectly edible," Cristina finished, slurping and swallowing the guts.

And as Lincoln barfed in hiding and the sisters tried to keep their breakfast in their stomach, Ronnie could only look at Cristina in disbelief. To think her former friend had turned into... _that_. It sent shivers up her spine.

"You're clearly too far gone," Ronnie stated. "You've gone nuts, Cristina! You've gotten so crazy, you'd be willing to eat yourself just to get some food! I mean at this point I should expect it, but why are you eating yourself so casually?! Why aren't you hesitating at all?!"

"Bitch, I'm delicious," was Cristina's sole response. "Besides, what's the point of questioning my sanity anymore?"

Ronnie narrowed her eyes and solemnly stated, "You never had any sanity to begin with, didn't you?"

"Ronnie, my research did a lot of things to me: It hurt me. It traumatized me. It changed me forever. But unlike the average change in personality, mine was for the worst," Cristina explained, licking her lips while she gave Ronnie a mixed look of condescendence and... Shame? "And then you saw the same things... But nothing happened to you. There was no change in your personality. You were disturbed, yes, but... Nothing else changed-"

"Leni!"

Ronnie and Lincoln immediately looked up to see Lori flying straight for the tower, then landing right in the spot where Leni was basically tortured. "Lori! You finally arrived!" Ronnie exclaimed in joy as she approached the winged ghoul, who dusted herself while her hair covered her eyes. "Listen, Lincoln has put Leni in a safe place, and Cristina here is currently too busy, we could take this chance to-"

But once Lori turned to Ronnie, she gained a dark blue, volatile aura that shook the entire place violently. Not helping matters was the look that she gave Ronnie: It was a look of pure, unbridled fury, almost as if Lori was fully ready to kill anybody who looked at her funny.

"Get out of here!" the winged ghoul ordered with an authoritarian voice. "Your friend and I have unfinished business!"

Ronnie wasted no time in obliging, and hid behind the rubble with Lincoln and Leni as soon as she could. "Ronnie, what are you doing back here?" Lincoln asked, giving the Hispanic ghoul a confused look. "Weren't you going to beat up Cristina?"

"I was, but Lori looks seriously pissed off right now," the bully and Lincoln took a peak out of the rubble and watched Cristina get up and turn to Lori. "In fact, she might be able to deal with Cristina on her own!"

"I can't help but feel like that isn't necessarily a good thing," Lincoln frowned.

And with the winged and tentacled ghouls, Lori stomped the ground hard enough to shatter it, right before she flew high in the sky and yelled "Cristina!" at the top of her lungs. Or, more accurately, so dang loud it sent massive soundwaves that made everything shake violently. Yet somehow, nobody was left deaf from it.

"You called?" Cristina scoffed, giving Lori an amused look.

"I may have failed to use my last chance to get rid of you, but I won't let it go to waste this time!" Lori proclaimed as she spread her wings, which dispersed feathers all over the sky. "You can torture me, and I'll be mad! You can torture my family, and I will make you suffer! But you won't torture Leni, and live to tell the tale!"

By the time Lori's wings stopped spreading feathers, the sky was basically covered in sharp, glowing blue feathers, all aimed directly at Cristina. And yet, instead of being scared or horrified, Cristina giggled in excitement.

"In fact, I'll make sure you never live again!" Lori stated before lifting and slamming her arms down. "Blades of Retribution!"

The feathers flew straight to Cristina, all while the redhead laughed like a maniac as she was stabbed by the hundreds of feathers. And then, when the redhead was filled to the brim with the things, Lori snapped her fingers and smirked as the feathers detonated in a massive, dark blue explosion.

The winged ghoul, believing Cristina was basically a goner by then, flew down to Leni, Ronnie and Lincoln soon afterwards. "There, the deed is done," Lori stated, before caressing the unconscious Leni's cheeks. "You don't have to fear anymore, my dear cinnamon roll, Cristina's gone for good-"

Then, demonic cackle was heard. "Something tells me it's too early to tell," Lincoln remarked.

Lori and Ronnie promptly got out of hiding and went to check where the cackle was coming from, only to see it was coming from the explosion itself. Then, once the smoke dispersed, Lori and Ronnie made a horrible discovery.

Cristina was still alive.

Yes, her body was filled with slash wounds, and her tentacles were nowhere to be seen, but she was still healthy enough to move. And once she walked out of the explosion in a rather casual manner, she promptly lifted her arms and healed her body in an instant: the wounds sealed themselves, the bleeding ceased, and four new tentacles sprout four new tentacles from her back.

And then she resumed her monologue as if nothing happened:

"That's when I realized just how weak I truly was, Ronnie Anne. I was changed forever by something that didn't even faze you. I mean, you're known as the toughest girl in school, but that's on the physical side of things. Mentally, you're probably just as vulnerable as everybody else... And yet, you survived the truth. You survived what I couldn't withstand..."

"Cristina, I don't care about your stupid monologues, or your reasoning, or why you consider yourself weak!" Ronnie growled, stomping the ground in exasperation. "All I want to know is why you were eating yourself before! Everything you've done up to now has had a point, even if the point was stupid or illogical! But eating yourself-"

Cue the redhead's response:

"It's a punishment."

Lori and Ronnie took a step back and exchange surprised looks. And the monologuing continued:

"Ever since I started my crusade to rid the world of shipping, all I've done is bring nothing more than misery, pain and despair. All I wish to create a perfect world: A world where nobody is forced to be together, where nobody is punished for not agreeing with the masses, where nobody is raped and violated... Just for some person's depraved pleasure. An utopia where "ship or be shipped" is nothing more than an old legend."

That statement made Ronnie clench her teeth and form a fist with her hand. Given what the redhead had done before, there really was no point in acting like a high and mighty well-meaning crusader. Now, she was nothing more than a hypocrite, a knight templar... A monster. And Ronnie soon made that clear when she rushed for Cristina and punched her hard enough to send her a couple feet back.

"I'm tired of hearing your crap!" Ronnie stated at the top of her lungs.

Cristina, instead of saying anything, simply gave Ronnie a look as the tomboy was joined by Lori.

"You raped Lincoln, you broke a bunch of innocent girls, you mind-controlled endless people just to reach your goal, and yet you think you still have the right to call yourself a well-meaning crusader? You're nothing more than a douchebag trying to justify their own actions through complete bullshit!" Ronnie stated, right before she and Lori gained auras-Ronnie's being purple and Lori's being dark blue-and they got ready to fight. "And if you won't stay dead from one attack, then we'll just throw everything we got at you until you drop dead!"

But the statement didn't made Cristina angry. In fact, it apparently just annoyed her, judging by her stern expression as she herself got a crimson red aura..

"So even after I give you my reasons, after I ask you to help me, after I give you the chance... This is how it's going to be? Yet another fight? Fine then, if that's how things are going to be," Cristina then gave the duo the middle finger. "Allow me to flip you off one last time, before I make my hands kid-friendly."

The redheaded ghoul ate her middle finger, then got in a battle stance, ready to fight. The duo almost immediately rushed straight for the redhead-because that worked so well last time-and, just as Lori got close enough to land a strike, she jumped just as Cristina prepared to block, surprising Cristina enough to give Ronnie Anne a shot at attacking her, which she used to punch her right in the face.

However, the tentacled ghoul soon counterattacked by smacking Ronnie Anne with her tentacles, only for dagger-like feathers to rain down in her general direction. Of course, these all came from Lori, who shot as many feathers as possible, forcing the redhead to dodge as much as possible. Not helping Cristina was the fact that Ronnie grabbed and threw large pieces of rubble at her, giving her something else to look out for.

Eventually, however, the redhead managed to grab the rubble with her tentacles and throw it back at Lori, who promptly blocked it with her wings. Despite reducing the rubble to smithereens, her wings seemed to be left undamaged.

"Come on, Ronnie, use your own powers!" Cristina ordered the raven-haired ghoul with an authoritarian tone. Not suggested, _ordered_. Which made the Hispanic girl run straight for the redhead. "If you were willing to turn yourself into a monster just to get a chance at kicking my ass, then you should at least bother to put it to good use!"

Ronnie then launched a rapid barricade of punches straight of Cristina, which she mostly blocked using either her own hands or her tentacles. Mostly her tentacles. And unfortunately, that didn't stop her from talking:

"Lori has wings that help her fly and throw dagger feathers, I have tentacles that can do an insane amount of things, and you have a freaking tail!" then, Cristina grabbed both of Ronnie's hands and bared her fangs as she met her face-to-face. "So why don't you use it to your advantage?!"

Ronnie responded by headbutting Cristina, kicking her in the gut and then sending her flying far back with another kick, with Lori throwing some glowing feathers at the redhead for good measure. And then she made the feathers explode.

That's totally going to work this time.

Nah, just kidding, Cristina leaped out of the resulting explosion and tried to strike Lori with her tentacles, though the winged ghoul managed to block the attacks with legs. Which she then used to smack Cristina right in the crotch, followed by her stabbing her arms with some more dagger-feathers and then kicking her hard enough to send her plummeting to the ground.

Then, Ronnie tried to perform a particular wrestling move: the diving elbow drop!... Only for Cristina to roll out of the way before the attack connected. But just as Cristina caught her breath, Lori flew down and performed a diving headbutt on her stomach, which was apparently strong enough to get her to spit out blood.

Nevertheless, Cristina simply smacked the winged ghoul away with her tentacles, then used those same tentacles to take out the sharp feathers in her body, which then healed the wounds in a couple of seconds.

" _Alright, these two are starting to become a hassle,_ " the redhead thought as she got up and dusted herself. " _It would probably be easier if I took out Lori, since I definitely need to make Ronnie suffer as much as possible, but how do I get rid of that chicken-legged skank?!_ "

Suddenly, Ronnie came behind Cristina and held her in a position ready for a suplex. "L-Let me go, Ronnie Anne!" Cristina once again demanded. Looks like she didn't learn her lesson from last time. "When are you going to understand that nothing either you or that humanoid turkey called Lori-"

Then Lori popped out of nowhere and lifted Ronnie Anne, ready for an aided suplex. "Did you call me?" the winged ghoul scoffed with a smug smirk.

The duo soon did an aided suplex, causing Cristina to clash headfirst on the ground. Not only did this leave behind a crater, but also cause her head to start bleeding. The redheaded ghoul soon responded by grabbing the duo with her tentacles and then throwing them away enough to let her get up and catch her breath as her head quickly recovered from the move.

"You know, I just had an idea," Ronnie remarked as she and Lori got up. "Let's try not to attack Cristina's head."

"You're right," Lori stated, right before she added with a sadistic tone. "We should try to crack her head open so her brains fall out!"

Let's just say Ronnie was caught off-guard with the suggestion. "Wow, you really hate Cristina, don't you?" the Hispanic ghoul asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't you?!" Lori snapped right at Ronnie, who flinched and took a step back. "She raped Lincoln, tortured my sisters and me, dragged you into this, after everything she's done, I'd expect you to be the one suggesting to bust her head open!"

The Hispanic ghoul took a step back, surprised by the winged ghoul's blunt statement.

"Yeah, Ronnie Anne, I'm very disappointed in you."

The duo turned to see Cristina, with her head fully healed, looking at the two with her arms crossed. However, she was clearly focusing more on Ronnie Anne. "I break my ass off to torture you and make you and everybody hate me as much as possible, and you're not going to gather the guts to spill mine?" the redhead inquired, raising an eyebrow.

She then pinched an eyebrow as both Ronnie and Lori clenched her teeth. "In any other situation, I'd be mocking you for holding back and showing compassion, but really, this is just too pitiful to-"

And then Ronnie punched her again, yelling "Shut up!" as the redhead was sent flying into another piece of rubble. "I'll kill you when the time is right!" Ronnie stated. "I'm j-just trying to figure out what's the best way to kill you!"

"Really? You're hesitating this much because you don't know how to kill her?" Lori asked, pinching her nose in disbelief. "I know someone as heinous as her deserves a horrible death, but I'm pretty sure you're holding back for another reason!"

"I-I'm being honest! That's the only reason I'm holding back!" Ronnie replied.

"Perhaps, you don't know how to actually use your ghoul powers?"

Lori and Ronnie turned to look at Cristina walking back to them, with her body healing from the crash as she did. "That would make the most sense, after all," the redhead stated, placing her arms behind her back. "While Lori has had some experience with her powers, and yours truly knew how to use her own all along, Ronnie here just became a ghoul. A monster. It's fitting that she'd have no idea on how to properly use those things for her advantage."

"Y-Yeah! W-What you said!" Ronnie stammered, cracking her knuckles. "I don't know how to use my ghoul powers, and that's why I've been holding back! B-But when I manage to figure out what they do, I'll wreck you to pieces!"

"You know, I'd actually be terrified if I didn't knew you were bluffing," Cristina chuckled as Ronnie then looked at her tail. "Just bow down to me and allow me to carry on with my plan, and I'll leave you two alone. How about it?"

Ronnie turned back to Cristina, walked up to her, shook hands... And then punched her in the face while she stabbed her with her tail, right before she used the same tail to smack her right into Lori, who smacked her with her wings... Or at least, tried, since Cristina simply blocked the attack and then clung to Lori's chest, which she bit with her fangs.

However, unlike Leni, Lori immediately grabbed the redhead and, just for good measure, stabbed her left eye with one of her sharp feathers before throwing her back into the ground. Once again, Cristina simply got up, then took out both the feather and her left eye, leaving behind a hollow, bleeding eye socket.

"When are you going to understand that nothing you do at me is ever going to stick?!" the redhead complained, stomping the ground and pointing at her eye socket. "Just watch, I'll have my eye healed up in no time!"

However, after some seconds passed, the redhead's eye didn't heal. And once she noticed this, she immediately threw a glare at Ronnie Anne. "You! You're somehow responsible for this!" Cristina growled as her tentacles grabbedsome rubble and threw it at the duo. "What the hell did you do to me?!"

Lori just threw explosive feathers at the rubble coming to her, while Ronnie cut her rubbles to pieces with her tail. This immediately made Cristina step back and shiver in fright.

"All I did was punch you and stab you with my tail," Ronnie answered, right before gaining a little smirk. Seems like she found a way to use her powers after all. "Perhaps, now's the time I go all-out against you!"

And while all of this happened, back at the hospital, the Loud sisters watched and cheered for Lori and Ronnie as the fight continued:

"Keep it up, guys!" Lynn exclaimed.

"Stab her with your tenis pail, Ronnie!" Lucy shouted, earning a look from Lynn.

Luna and Luan just watched with hopeful looks, still holding hands, and the twins watched while hugging each other. Lisa, despite not being conscious to actually know what was going on, smiled as she felt things were going to get better from here. And then Mrs. Johnson and Carol came into the rooms with... VR helmets?

"Okay, girls, I'm pretty sure you probably don't want to use these things, seeing how they caused you so much trouble before," Carol remarked, and judging by how the sisters nearly freaked out or otherwise shivered at the idea, she had a point. "But if you want to help them defeat Cristina, or if you want to get some sweet catharsis against her, you'll have to use these things."

"Why?" Lana asked, crossing her arms. "How can those things help us help them?"

"You'll see eventually," Mrs. Johnson said, glancing at the helmets with both worry and determination.

Back at the tower, Lori and Ronnie Anne continued their attack against Cristina: First by Ronnie repeatedly smacking Cristina with her tail, right before Lori kicked her up in the air, and then flew up until she was close enough to constantly stab the tentacled ghoul. Unfortunately, Cristina quickly released a sphere-shaped attack that sent the winged ghoul flying away, giving Cristina the time to land on the ground and catch her breath.

Then, once she realized her slash wounds weren't healing, the redheaded ghoul clenched her teeth. " _Damn it, my regenerative factor won't return for a while it seems,_ " she thought as she got up and dusted herself. " _Great, now I need to be extra careful while trying to beat the crap out of Ronnie and Lori! What a hassle!_ "

And while Cristina continued to think about nonsense, Ronnie took the chance to run after the redhead and attack her. And while she managed to punch and kick her, while she tried to attack with her tail, Cristina grabbed it with one of her tentacles and swung Ronnie around... While the Hispanic ghoul reacted rather suggestively to the grabbing.

"Don't interrupt me while I'm thinking about stuff!" Cristina hissed, right before she sent Ronnie flying straight for Lori, causing them to crash on the ground... with Ronnie right on Lori's bosom.

"Are you okay, Ronnie?" Lori asked as she and Ronnie got up and separated.

"Yeah, but when Cristina grabbed my tail, I couldn't help but..." the ghoul girl stammered and blushed as she looked away, though when Lori gave her a worried look, she eased up a bit and confessed, "Well, it felt weird. Almost as if she was grabbing a very sensitive part of me."

Lori then flashed a glare at Cristina... While the redhead herself impatiently waited for the duo to continue the fight. "Listen, Ronnie, I have an idea on how we can get rid of her faster," Lori told the Hispanic ghoul as she leaned closer to her. "And this is what we need to do..."

The winged and Hispanic ghouls then whispered the plan to each other, all while Cristina continued to wait for them to strike. It's not like the tentacled ghoul could strike them herself, no, that was totally not an option.

" _Just what the hell are those two talking about?_ " Cristina though, narrowing her eyes as her face scrunched up in exasperation. " _I mean, my regenerative powers are disabled at the moment and they don't take advantage of it? What, did Leni's stupidity spread to them or something?_ "

Then, they turned around and prepared to strike. " _Finally, something interesting!_ " Cristina thought, getting ready for whatever came next...

Which was Ronnie digging underground. Naturally, Cristina was baffled at the action for a moment, though she soon recovered her sense when Lori flew to her next... And then flew up high, right before throwing some sharp feathers at her... Just as a bunch of glowing portals opened in the sky. However, when Cristina tried to dodge, Ronnie came out from the ground and grabbed her ankles, effectively restraining the tentacled ghoul.

The feathers stabbed Cristina's tentacles, and the redhead screamed as the feathers glowed before exploding, vaporizing the tentacles in the process. With that done, Ronnie returned to the ground, then jumped up to uppercut Cristina, who was then sent straight for the ground with a kick from Lori. With that done, Lori and Ronnie shared a high-five as some shadowy figures came out of the portals.

" _Damn it, so this is what they were planning!_ " Cristina thought as she got up, though just barely. " _Well then, I might as well return the favor!_ "

So the redhead leaped straight for Lori and bared her fangs... Only for Lynn to come out of nowhere and kick her right in the jaw, with the redhead giving the athlete a shocked look as the remaining sisters-minus Lisa and Lily-appeared in the battlefield.

"Surprise, motherfucker!" Lynn sneered.

Cristina was sent flying to Luna, who smacked her with her guitar and sent flying to Luan, who punched her right into the air where Lucy and Lola double teamed her before sending her on the ground again, wherein the redhead hit a puddle of mud set up by Lana.

"Where did you guys come from?" Lori asked as she approached the sisters.

"Okay, so, long story short: Remember how Carol could do those superpower stuff before? Those were actually hard light projections doing the same things!" Luna explained as Cristina slowly got up. "So, Carol and Mrs. Johnson gave us some helmets that would let us do the trick as well!"

And as all of that happened and the sisters got ready to attack Cristina once more, Lincoln-yeah, remember him?-watched from the rubble with awe. "Huh, looks like everything's looking good! If the sisters and Ronnie work together, I'm sure they can defeat Cristina!" he stated with a wide, hopeful smile.

"Don't be so naive... Lincoln..."

The boy turned around and saw Leni wake up and get up, though it was clear she was having trouble doing so. "L-Leni, y-you woke up?!" Lincoln remarked as he helped his sister stabilize. "I thought you were going to remain unconscious until the end of this fight!"

"That's not important!" Leni stated, breathing heavily. "You can't let your guard down just yet. Even if our sisters get to damage Cristina, they won't be the one to defeat her. You and Ronnie Anne will."

"W-What makes you so certain that will be the case?" Lincoln asked. "After all, while I got us into this trouble, and Ronnie has been able to deal with Cristina with Lori's help, we don't seem like we'd be able to actually defeat Cristina."

"You'll see," Leni said before she crawled to the rubble, then made Lincoln come to her side. "Our sisters are about to make a great mistake."

What she was talking about was Lori, holding a bruised and bleeding Cristina in hand, flying high and aiming the redhead at the satellite while the remaining sisters cheered her on and Ronnie tried to catch their attention, with very little success. Then, as Lori threw Cristina, the boy jumped over the rubble and yelled at the top of his lungs:

"Stop! Don't do that!"

Unfortunately, by the time the sisters turned to look at Lincoln, Lori threw the redhead straight for the satellite, which caused her to get electrocuted while the signal eventually broke off and the satellite cracked a little, though it wasn't enough to break it completely.

"Oh hey, Lincoln, we forgot you were here," Luna remarked as Lincoln approached the girls. "Anyway, why did you ask us to stop? Don't you want to see Cristina suffer?"

"Cristina's internal organs have some sort of weird disorder or whatever that makes them beat erratically unless she gets electrocuted every once in a while!" the boy exclaimed, causing his sisters to take a step back as they processed what that meant. "If you throw her into satellite and she gets electrocuted, she's likely going to be healed!"

"Then why didn't you tell us about that earlier?!" Lola hissed.

Linc took a step back as the sisters-minus Lori and Leni-joined in Lola's argument. "You had the time we took to break into the tower and then go into the gauntlets to tell us, but you told us nothing!" Luna stated, putting her hands on her hips.

Then, as Cristina got up, the top half of hair slowly turned white, a crimson aura appeared all around her and the ground started to shake. "G-Girls, I don't think this is the time to be arguing!" Ronnie said, trying to catch any of the sisters' attention. "Come on, focus on defeating Cristina right now!"

And then Lynn lifted her and threw her away. "No offense, Ronnie, but this has nothing to do with you, so please stay out of this!"

"Yeah, it's about how Lincoln failed to give us this important information!" Lana added.

The ground shook even harder and Cristina' crimson aura was enveloped in a bigger, teal aura. "I-It's not my fault that you decided to electrocute Cristina instead of, I don't know, dropping her to the ground or something!" Lincoln argued defensively. "I-In fact, that probably would've worked even better!"

"That's not the point!" Luan proclaimed. "The point is that you were stupid enough to withhold such important information from us until this point!"

Finally, Cristina lost her shit.

"You. Fucking. Cuuuuunts!"

The redhead's auras grew even bigger and more volatile, causing the ground of the arena to greatly break, though it wasn't enough to shatter it into bits. And then, Cristina not only grew her tentacles back, but she grabbed Lola, Lana, Luan, Luna and Lucy with them, which she then squeezed as hard as she could as she spoke:

"First you dare use Lincoln as your personal punching bag. Then you decide to use him as your personal scapegoat whenever you please. And now, you'll waste your chance to kill me just to put even more blame on him!?"

Then she squeezed harder, causing the sisters to spit out blood and scream as their bones practically shattered.

"Clearly I was being too merciful! You don't deserve to be broken! You don't deserve to be tortured! All you deserve, is a pathetic, _agonizing **death**_!"

Shortly afterwards, Cristina squeezed the sisters so hard, they exploded into their upper and lower halves, which then dropped to the ground motionless before dissipating into nothing. Naturally, Lincoln screamed and ran away while Ronnie and Lori looked at the sight with both shock and slight fear. And then Cristina turned to Lori.

"Each and everyone of you deserves death!"

The redhead leaped straight for Lori, who shot a bunch of feathers towards the ghoul and made them explode... Only for the redhead to come out of the smoke unscathed, and then fuse her tentacles into a large drill which she used to stab Lori through the stomach. The winged ghoul soon fell and hit the ground while Cristina's tentacles morphed back to normal... And then she turned to Ronnie.

"Even you, Ronnie Anne!"

Cristina then covered her left arm into stone and, with both her auras blazing, ran straight for Ronnie Anne, who immediately responded by engaging in a fist clash with Cristina, blaring her purple aura. However, while they were evenly matched at first, Cristina slowly managed to get an upperhand as she spoke:

"Just give it up, Ronnie Anne, you're a traitor and you know it! We joined forces to destroy those who brought endless pain to us! To Lincoln! But in the end, you proved yourself to be just like them! A traitor who does nothing to fix what upsets them!"

However, that statement was more than enough to give Ronnie the strength to push back, even after Cristina reinforced her arm to be covered in steel. Then, as Ronnie spoke, the redhead was slowly pushed back.

"I joined forces with you because I thought I could trust you!"

Cristina reinforced her arm with steel. This didn't help her at all.

"I joined forces with you because I thought you'd help me protect Lincoln!"

The redhead reinforced her arm with titanium. Not only did this help even less, since it forced Cristina to use more energy to keep the arm up, but Ronnie immediately gained the advantage.

"But in the end, you betrayed me! You tried to force me and Lincoln together, just like the shippers! You raped Lincoln and hurt him far worse than anybody else could ever do! You destroyed my faith and trust in you by everything you've done ever since this whole fiasco started! In the end, you're nothing more than a hypocrite, a liar, _a bitch_!"

With the last part, Ronnie got enough strength to actually break Cristina's arm and send the redhead flying away, then crashing down into the ground. And as Cristina whitered in pain and grabbed her broken arm, Ronnie leaped into the arm, then

"And I'm ending this right now!"

Cristina thought otherwise, for her shock collar discharged in that moment and allowed her to shoot some lighting at Ronnie, paralyzing the Hispanic ghoul and giving the redhead the chance to smack her back with her tentacles, then get up and catch her breath while Ronnie tried to move, without much success.

Oh and Lincoln was also there. " _Dang it, this took a 180 turn really freaking fast!_ " Lincoln thought in despair, grabbing his head and looking around in a panic. " _If nothing is done, Cristina's going to kill us all, but what can be done?!_ "

In that instant Leni, who gathered enough strength to get up and grab and lift Lori, turned around and

"Lincoln..." Leni blurted, catching her brother's attention. "You must... Help Ronnie Anne-"

"Leni, it's not that I don't want to help Ronnie, it's just that I can't!" Lincoln frowned and avoided eye contact. "She fought Cristina, and even with all that power, she's having trouble fighting her! What could I possibly do?"

"You can end this once and for all!" Lori stated, suddenly waking up. "You started this. It's just fair you help end it."

The boy held the knife and stuttered, shedding a couple tears, "I-I know... B-But-"

"Just remember, Lincoln," Leni glanced at the knife held by the boy. "You have the means of wounding her, now that Ronnie has canceled her regenerative powers. And you hold the perfect tool to do that."

Lincoln looked at his knife, and it wasn't long before he put two and two together and got an idea just as Leni basically leaped from the tower and then tree to tree to the hospital...

Back with Cristina and Ronnie, the redhead slowly walked to the paralyzed ghoul while morphing her remaining, functioning arm into a long, sharp object. A misericorde, to be exact.

"I didn't want this to end like this, Ronnie, but you left me no choice," Cristina stated as she reached the Hispanic girl and gave her a look of regret. "You betrayed me. You joined the shippers. And now, if I want the world to be purged of their sin, I must kill you as well."

Cristina held her sword-arm high, took a deep breath, and then closed her eyes as she prepared to stab the Hispanic ghoul.

"Coup de grâce!" the redhead proclaimed right as she swung her weapon.

However, the sword-arm stopped inches short from Ronnie Anne, who soon got up and quickly saw the reason why; Cristina had been stabbed right through the stomach, with the knife piercing and coming out all the way from her back. And who was the one who stabbed her?

It was none other than Lincoln, who held a stern look as the redhead bled from her mouth and shed tears with a look of pure horror. However, the look soon turned into a mix of offense and fury once she looked at Lincoln's eyes.

"Did you miss me?" the boy asked as he took out the knife.

Cristina flinched and staggered for a moment, right before the stab wound basically closed and healed itself. She then gathered enough strength to try and hack Lincoln to bits, all while she shouted "Get the fuck out of my way, Lincoln!" at the top of her lungs.

All this accomplished was giving Lincoln the opportunity to stab the sword-arm, which also healed itself once Lincoln took out the weapon. And he didn't stop there, for he swung his knife again and essentially cut-off Cristina's broken arm. "Why did you do that?!" Cristina yelled at the top of her lungs.

"I figured you wouldn't use it anymore," Lincoln scoffed.

Then Ronnie's paralysis finished and Cristina morphed her remaining arm into a hammer and tried to squash the duo, only for them to dodge it. She then morphed it into a bastard sword and caught her breath as Lincoln and Ronnie talked with each other.

"Ronnie, I have a mission for you," Lincoln said, catching the ghoul's attention. "I want you to dig deep underground, and destroy as many platforms as possible until you reach the ground, then return back here. I believe that should be enough to kill Cristina."

The Hispanic girl, however, soon realized what that would entail. "But, wouldn't that mean-"

"That I'd need to face Cristina alone? Yes," Lincoln looked at the ground with worry, then glanced at the redheaded ghoul and his knife before he felt his heart being filled with determination. "But I started this mess, and I intend to end it. So please, do as I request, and go do it!"

"I'm not leaving you behind!" Ronnie stated.

"For crying out loud, Ronnie, this is for the good of everyone!" Lincoln growled. "I know you want to protect me, but the best way you can do that is by helping me defeat Cristina, and in the process leave me alone to face her. Please, go down and break everything!"

Seeing the boy really was determined to do it this way, Ronnie reluctantly nodded, then dug underground while Lincoln got ready to face Cristina alone. However, the redhead didn't seem to be ecstatic about the idea.

"Cristina!" Lincoln proclaimed, catching the redheaded ghoul's attention. "This is the only time I'm going to say this, so listen up! Either you redeem yourself by letting yourself be taken to jail, or you lose that only chance and fight a battle you'll never be able to win! So, what do you choose?"

Instead of doing what any average supervillain would do and be angry or intrigued by the offer, Cristina was more flabbergasted. Lincoln was giving her a chance at redemption? After everything she did?

"Come on, really?" the redhead responded, morphing her arm back to normal before putting it on her hips. And naturally, Lincoln's firm stance slowly went down as the redhead continued talking. "I mean, I know sometimes you can be too nice for your own good, Lincoln, but at least in any other situation it would make sense to an extent. But here? You should be wanting me dead!"

"And I do, it's just that I've always wanted to say something like that," the boy sheepishly confessed. "so I figured it was better late than never."

Cristina chuckled at the idea, remembering back when everything was simpler and less "insane sci-fi anime" levels of crazy. Then again, she was responsible for everything to turn out like that, so...

"You do know this is the point of no return, right?" the redhead asked, giving the white-haired a boy a stern, yet subtly concerned, look. "No matter what happens next. No matter what we do. No matter what miracles occur..."

Lincoln narrowed his eyes and held his knife like a sword as Cristina finished with, "Today, one of us dies, while the other walks away, forever changed by the experience."

"How funny," Lincoln remarked with a chuckle. "You're speaking as if the one who dies and the one who leaves were a complete mistery. It's weird, specially because I can't help but feel that you know who will die..."

Then he gave the redhead a determined glare. "And who will leave."

Cristina promptly gave Lincoln an annoyed scowl before she changed it to an amused smirk. "Yes, perhaps it's foolish of me to speak like that," she confessed, right before she got in a battle stance. "So how about we let our weapons do the talking?"

Lincoln just smiled and nodded before he and Cristina ran towards each other and engaged in a swordfight. An evenly swordfight, for that matter. The bladed weapons swung and clashed as the ground slowly became more and more unstable and it started to shake, no doubt from the damage Ronnie was doing underneath.

Nevertheless, the redhead and white-haired boy continued to fight as a badly damaged camera flew up and started recording, sending the video feed to all TVs possible, including the hospital, where Lori and Leni were put down in beds just as the feed arrived. Lori, despite having a large hole where her stomach should be, didn't seem to be in that much pain. However, Leni was definitely way too weak at the moment.

"Is that... Lincoln?" Leni weakly asked as she turned to the TV screen, causing Lori to turn around and look at the object.

Then the winged ghoul recognized what was happening, and almost immediately freaked out. "And he's fighting Cristina?!" she exclaimed as she tried to get up, despite the sharp pain going through her stomach. Or, what use to be her belly, anyway.

"Junior, calm down!" Carol exclaimed as she restrained Lori and put her back on her bed. "I know you want to help your brother, but you're in no condition to go anywhere right now! I mean, you literally have a large gaping hole where your stomach should be!"

"That's my line!" Lori hissed, punching Carol with unbridled rage. "Now let me go! There has to be something, anything I can do to help him!"

"You did all you could, Junior!" Carol growled, slapping Lori hard enough to stun her. "Now it's up to him and Ronnie to deal with Cristina. She already hurt everybody, specially you and your family, pretty badly, going back to that place to try help your brother would be suicide."

Seeing what she was talking about, the winged ghoul looked at the ground, and then turned back to the TV screen, wherein she saw Lincoln and Cristina clashing swords while she shed a couple tears and thought:

" _Please survive, Lincoln._ "

The remaining sisters also saw the footage, but while they were also surprised, they also highly encouraged and cheered on Lincoln the best they could, alongside Clyde and his parents back at their house, his four dates for the Sadie Hawkins dance, and really, anybody that was watching the fight roll on was either confused or cheering on, or even both.

"So, it has come to this, huh?" Luna asked, looking at the TV screen while holding Luan close to her in a hug. "We're stuck here, broken in body and spirit, and Lincoln has to face Cristina on his own."

"Don't be so negative!" Lucy exclaimed, catching Luan's attention and potentially giving Luna a migraine. "He has Ronnie Anne by his side! And besides, he knows he started this mess, and he's felt bad about it ever since then. This is his chance to redeem himself, to end this torment, and he won't lose as long as he has that in mind!"

And in the other room, Lana was comforting both Lola and Lisa, who were similarly in a depressed mood. "Besides, he tried his best to help us when we were feeling down and when we were being brainwashed. It's only fair we try our best to help, by praying for his success and hoping he comes out of this okay, don't you think?" the tomboy remarked, brushing her twin sister's hair affectionately.

"Yeah, I guess you do have a point there, sis," Lola replied, blushing and grabbing Lana's hand.

Back in the room with Luna, Luan, Lucy and specially Lynn, however, it wasn't long before the sisters noticed someone was missing...

"Wait a minute, where is Ronnie Anne?!" they exclaimed in unison.

Back inside the tower, Ronnie repeatedly punched the platforms she could find until they basically fell all the way to the bottom and took any remaining platforms with them, or at least damage them hard enough to make them easier to break. However, while Ronnie wasn't too exhausted to continue, it was clear that her method was just too slow to be effective.

" _At the rate I'm going, it's going to take me forever to break all the platforms!_ " Ronnie thought as she caught her breath. " _There has to be an easier way to do it..._ "

Then, she got an idea. She got on top of a platform above all other platforms, and then gathered strength in her legs as she prepared to jump. Then, with enough energy gathered, the ghoul jumped as hard as she could, sending the platform flying straight to the bottom and taking all platforms underneath with it.

" _That should do the trick!_ " Ronnie thought with a smirk.

And as the ghoul went back up, the swordfight continued, with Lincoln managing to slash Cristina multiple times, only for said wounds to heal almost immediately. Not only that, but the redhead and Lincoln engaged in another sword clash soon afterwards, where Cristina chuckled to herself a bit.

"You should know by now that with my regenerative abilities back, nothing you can do will leave any lasting damage!" the redhead proudly scoffed before smacking away Lincoln's knife with her sword-arm. "Now, before I turn you into minced meat, let me ask you something: Why are you still trying to defeat me?"

"That's the dumbest question I've heard you ask!" Lincoln defiantly scoffed, forcing a smug grin as Cristina blushed and took a step back in shock. "Looks like you also took on some of Leni's stupidity when you cannibalized her!"

From the hospital, the ghouled Leni couldn't help but chuckle. Yeah, Lincoln was indirectly insulting her, but he was mostly insulting the bitch that caused this whole mess in the first place, so she wasn't that offended.

"W-What I meant to say was why are you bothering to continue fighting for your sisters' sake!" Cristina quickly corrected, stomping the ground and making it grow more unstable. "They've tormented you, used you as their pawn for their own selfish desires, and who knows what else they could do to you! Why would you fight for someone who treat you like that?!"

"Because they're my family, and unlike whatever nonsense you've read on the internet, which by the way won't ever become real no matter what retort you may have, they love me, and I love them in return!" Lincoln victoriously proclaimed, though Cristina's response was more of disgust. "In a platonic, family sense, you freaking sicko!"

"Huh, Storge then," the redhead scoffed. "It still doesn't explain why you're willing to take all of that punishment for seemingly no reward. As far as I can tell, you and your sisters spend more time on their nerves or fighting than being friendly with each other!"

"Because that's inevitable with families as big as mine!" Lincoln growled, gathering enough anger and courage to slap Cristina hard enough to leave a handprint on her cheek. "We have our differences, and some of us can't stand each other, but in the end, we deal with it, and we got each other's backs! And pardon the cliche, but if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"

Then Cristina raised her sword-arm and positioned it at Lincoln's neck, causing the boy to step back. "By that logic, if I kill one of you, I'll end up killing all of you," the redhead pointed out with a sadistic grin. "So, how about-"

Just before she could strike again, however, Ronnie burst from the ground in front of Cristina and uppercutted her successfully, sending the redhead back a bit while the ghoul reunited with the discount albino.

" _Ugh, and here I thought I needed a dick to be cockblocked,_ " Cristina thought as her body regenerated the smack in the face.

"Did you do what I told you to do?" Lincoln asked as Ronnie Anne stretched a bit.

"Yep! It took a while, but I'm pretty sure if this stage breaks, we're going all down to the ground," Ronnie answered. "Now all you need to do is trick Cristina into-"

Then, remembering she had tentacles, Cristina used one of them to knock Lincoln into the floor and another to grab and lift Ronnie Anne, while making sure to cover her mouth this time.

"Would you stop ruining our fun, Ronnie Anne!?" Cristina scolded before throwing Ronnie away. "Step aside and leave the grown ups to their own business!"

"I'm a couple months older than you!" the Hispanic ghoul growled as she hit the ground next to the satellite.

Cristina then went to Lincoln, and morphed her arm into a hammer, whcih she lifted as her shock collar got ready to shock her again. "Any last words?" the redhead inquired, giving the boy a stern look. "Before I turn you into an eunuch, that is?"

"Yeah, go to hell!" Lincoln defiantly spat.

The redhead just smiled at the words, and then swung down her hammer-arm once she was electrocuted, filling her hammer-arm with electricity. However, Lincoln rolled away just before the attack connected, and the resulting shockwave was so powerful it sent him flying straight to Ronnie Anne, who caught and clung to him as the platform was damaged beyond repair... And to the point of breaking apart.

It was at this point, and from a hole on the ground, that Cristina saw her mistake: Now it was a fall all the way down to the ground for her, Lincoln, and Ronnie, and the chances of them surviving that was very slim. So, knowing what was coming next, the redhead turned to Lincoln and Ronnie, and once the duo saw her and shot glares at her... She simply smiled and gave them a thumbs up.

"Congratulations."

With that said, the ground broke into pieces just as Lincoln and Ronnie exchanged confused looks, with Lincoln and Ronnie screaming as they and Cristina-who was strangely silent-fell to the ground. But as that happened, Ronnie and Lincoln looked at each other, hugged and then braced for impact...


	50. Aftermath

Lincoln found himself in a black, featureless void once again, though this time, instead of feeling opressed and terrified, he felt... Peaceful. As if, after everything he went through, he could finally relax in peace. He... His sisters... All of Royal Woods... They could finally recover from all the pain and move on from this madness. But there was only one problem:

He felt too weak to move. He didn't even think he could fly or do whatever bizarre thing this black void allowed him to do. He was left motionless from the fighting. And so, he drifted across the seemingly endless space, satisfied by his victory...

But then, a voice spoke.

" _Hey, Lincoln?_ "

The boy almost immediately recognized the voice belonged to Ronnie Anne. At last, a detached voice he could actually trust! He opened his eyes and tried to look for the Hispanic ghoul, but he couldn't see her anywhere. In fact, he couldn't see anything other than the void.

" _Hi, Ronnie,_ " Lincoln mentally greeted, getting a smile as an image of Ronnie Anne appeared in front of him. " _Did we do it?_ "

The figure simply giggled, though for some she clutched her stomach and looked like it pained her to laugh. " _Yeah, we did. Although, we had to work hard to get it._ "

Lincoln raised an eyebrow at her motion and pained gesture, but he figured it was probably just from the fight. Specially because, compared to him, she definitely had a more physical approach to the whole deal.

" _Well, it was something we had to do, I guess. Besides, the reward was more than worth it: Now we can leave in peace, knowing that the trouble with Cristina is finally over! She will never hurt us again!_ "

And then, the Ronnie figure forced a smile as she started to dissipate. " _Yeah, we won't be hurt anymore... By Cristina, at least._ "

Once he saw the figure dissipate, Lincoln tried to move again in order to try and grab her, but he still felt too weak to move. So, seeing he wouldn't be able to help her, he gave her a simple question: " _...W-What do you mean by that?_ "

The figure chuckled again, saying as her mouth started bleeding:

" _Hehe, Lincoln... Wake up, you silly._ "

The boy obliged and once he woke up, the first thing he saw was Ronnie Anne on top of him, giving him a smile... While bleeding from her mouth, just like the figure, and shedding tears. "R-Ronnie, why are you bleeding?" Lincoln asked, the feeling of fear returning in an instant.

Then he looked down and realized why she was bleeding: she had a thin piece of metal piercing her stomach, right where the figure grabbed. Upon seeing this, the boy crawled away until he could get up, and then helped the Hispanic ghoul stand and remain stable. He then took a look at his surroundings: They were back at the very bottom of the tower, with the door still burst open from when Lincoln and his sisters first got in.

Ah, the memories.

"D-Don't worry, Ronnie, I-I'm sure I can call the ambulance from here," the boy said with desperation as he looked through the ruins of the tower for something, anything he could use as a phone. "I-I just need to find something I can use as a phone, so please, hold on tight!"

So the boy continued to look for anything to use as a phone. But alas, the only thing he could find was nothing more than rubble, with a shadowy figure seemingly stabbed across a couple of them. So, with his curiosity peaking, the boy and Hispanic ghoul walked forward to the figure... And soon regretted it.

The figure was Cristina, with large, spiky bits of rubble piercing across her chest, head... And crotch, with some visible viscera on all three of them. Her single eye was still open, and much to the duo's horror, it could still move. Not only that, but Cristina smiled soon afterwards.

She was still alive.

"I'm glad you two got out okay," said the redhead with a surprisingly casual tone, specially considering the freaking stalactites piercing her body. "Then again, I should've seen it coming. You're the heroes, I'm the villain. You get to live, I get to die. That's how it usually works, and that's how it will always work."

"H-How..." Lincoln blurted, taking a step back. "How are you still alive?! No human could survive having their whole body pierced by spikes!"

"Human is the keyword there. If I was still a human, I would've been dead by now," the redhead replied as sirens echoed the building. "But I'm no longer human, am I? No, by drinking the serum, I casted away my humanity in order to become something else. A monster? A mutant? Does it even matter? What matters is that I'll remain alive even after this skewering I received."

"I hope you enjoy living as a disfigured abomination, then," Lincoln sternly stated, causing the redhead to think about that while the sirens grew louder.

"Where are those sirens coming from?" Ronnie inquired, looking around.

And then, without warning, a bunch of ambulance cars arrived at the wrecked location, with a bunch of paramedics and Carol, Bobby and Mrs. Johnson coming in right away. "Okay everybody, look for any survivors while we take the kids to the hospital!" Carol ordered as she, Bobby and Mrs. Johnson headed to the trio. "Now, Lincoln, Ronnie and Cri-oh my god!"

The older trio flinched and took a step back-with Mrs. Johnson looking notably horrified-while Cristina simply waved hello with a goofy smile. Clearly, it seemed her situation didn't bother her as much as it should.

"She... She's still alive?!" Carol asked in disbelief, right as Mrs. Johnson ran to her daughter and before she shook herself back to reality. "Whatever, Bobby, you and I are going to take Lincoln and Ronnie to the hospital."

Then the blonde nurse turned to Mrs. Johnson, who crouched down and grabbed Cristina's hand as she cried. While there would be no sympathy for Cristina in, like, ever, she was still Mrs. Johnson's daughter. And seeing her own child like... This, would be horrifying to any parent.

"Mrs. Johnson," Carol said, though she hesitated when she saw the redheaded woman's turmoil. So she took a deep breath, and said, "You have my condolences."

Carol and Bobby worked together to bring Ronnie and Lincoln back, while Mrs. Johnson remained behind and pondered what to do next. Leaving her daughter like this would normally seem like a good idea to anybody, but she was her mother. And what kind of mother would leave behind their child in such a horrible situation?

A mother who'd realize their child deserved it, but that didn't stop Mrs. Johnson from trying to take out the tentacled ghoul. "Does... Does it hurt?" Mrs. Johnson inquired as she lifted her-surprisingly motionless-daughter from the spikes. "Am I going too fast? T-Too slow?"

"Why do you care?" Cristina blurted.

The woman flinched, then released the girl, causing her to land even deeper in the spikes. "D-Don't scare me like that!" the woman complained as she tried to take the ghoul out again. "I'm trying to get you out of these-"

"Again, why do you care?" Cristina asked once more, though this time, the woman didn't flinch. "It's all over: I was defeated, Ronnie and Lincoln won, the sisters and all of Royal Woods are not at peace, the Shippingeddon failed..."

The redheaded girl fell silent until Mrs. Johnson successfully took her out of the spikes... Only to realize her injuries were no longer healing. "So why would you bother to take me out of here?" Cristina asked as Mrs. Johnson put her down and tried to think of what to do. "Why not leave me behind? Let me suffer stuck in this place for the rest of my days? Alone, isolated from the world, remembered as a monster?"

"W-Why aren't your injuries healing?" the redheaded woman inquired, her crying growing more intense as she took out the blueprints of the serum from behind her back. "From the blueprints, the serum you drank should give you the ability to heal any and all injuries unless nullified!"

"Perhaps, this was His plan all along?" Cristina looked at the sky, only to see the clouds had been gone for a long time, with the sun now setting in the horizon. "When He failed to strike me with lighting, He tricked me into getting confident, and then He gave the Louds subtle guidance in order to help them defeat me. And when they finally did it, just to make me suffer for my sins, He nullified my healing capacities, but allowed me to live."

Then she lifted her remaining arm and gave the sky a thumbs up. "Clever bastard," she said.

After she processed... Whatever just happened, Mrs. Johnson grabbed and lifted Cristina, who clutched to the lady's arm as the duo walked out of the ruins. Mrs. Johnson carried the ghoul like a bride, and she looked to see if there any ambulance cars left as the ghoul started to complain.

"I already told you to leave me behind!" she spat, growing more and more exasperated as the woman didn't respond. "The daughter you knew and loved is gone! She was nice, kind, and knew how to keep her damn mouth shut! But now she's been replaced by yours truly: A sadist, a monster, a girl who seriously needs to learn when to keep her damn mouth shut-!"

"Shut up!" Mrs. Johnson hissed. "I'm taking you back home to figure out what's wrong with you whether you like it or not! I don't care if you think you're different because of taking the serum, or what you did, or whatever, but you're still Cristina Johnson, and regardless of what you or anybody else says, I'm going get you back to normal, even if I have to beat you up to do it! Now we'll go to the hospital, and if nobody agrees to check you out, we'll go back home and see what we do from there, got it?!"

The ghoul fell silent and remained like that as the woman decided to walk all the way to the hospital. Yep, it would take them a while, it seems.

 _Meanwhile, at the Hospital..._

Lincoln sat on a chair outside an operating room, where Ronnie Anne was currently being checked at by some doctors. No doubt it would take them a long time for them to fix her, what with the stuff piercing her stomach and all.

" _Well, Ronnie got hurt, but at the very least this is all over,_ " the boy thought, gaining a smile as he took a deep breath. " _And my sisters and I will recover eventually, so there's that too._ "

Just as he thought that, Lori, supported by Carol, walked to Lincoln and sat next to him just as the boy noticed her. "L-Lori?! Carol?!" he exclaimed as the nurse dusted herself. "W-Why did you bring Lori here?! Isn't she supposed to be resting?!"

"Junior here wouldn't stop whining until I took her with you, and seeing as even the other doctors were growing sick of her cries, I decided to humor her to get her to shut up," Carol explained, brushing both Lori and Lincoln's hair. "She said something among the lines of having something to tell you on behalf of all your sisters, as some of them are in such a bad condition they can't tell the stuff to you in person. Now if you excuse me, I got work to do."

And with that said, the nurse went back to her work as Lori gave Lincoln a reassuring look, then started brushing his hair as she gently gave him a hug. Mostly for her sake, though. "So, you did it..." she weakly said, shedding a couple tears. "You and Ronnie defeated Cristina?"

"Yeah, Ronnie broke the platforms on the interior of the tower, then I tricked her into smashing the ground and sending us plummeting to the ground, where she was impaled in her head, stomach and... Her, crotch," Lincoln answered, hesitating on the last part for a moment, and wincing alongside Lori once he finished. "And while she did survive that, now she's going to be living as a deformed abomination from now on."

Then Lori tightened the hug, despite the fact that it brought her so much pain. "I'm so proud of you, Lincoln... We all are..." her smile soon turned into a frown, though, "And that's why... It really hurts, you know?"

"W-What hurts?" Lincoln asked as he separated from the girl.

"While you were fighting with Cristina, what she said about us got me thinking, and... She was right about something," Lori responded, and what she said next left Lincoln speechless:

"You deserved to get a break, and we deserved to be punished."

The boy, unable to think of a response, blinked twice before Lori decided to explain herself, and to an extent, her other sisters:

"Just think about it: Every single time we do something bad, either people or ourselves disregard it as nothing more than a happy little accident, but when you do the same thing, you're suddenly in the wrong. You always get to learn the important life lessons, while we ultimately learn nothing. In the end, we always get away with our mistakes and errors, while you're always forced to do something about them and learn a lesson."

Lincoln turned to look at the ground as he gave what his oldest sister said a thought. In general, what she said was true: While Lincoln could be selfish at times, at least he would make up for his mistakes. But his sisters? You'd be hard-pressed to find them being essentially forced to make up for their mistakes. It's almost as if it was entirely optional for them to do that.

"It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. And it never was," Lori added, looking at the ceiling as she more tears streamed down her cheeks. "And so, I guess that's why Cristina decided to torture us and leave you out of the whole mess: To force us to regret our mistakes. To force us to confront the consequences of our actions. To force us to see how it feels to be like you."

And then Lincoln turned back to Lori and snapped, "But that doesn't excuse what she did to you!"

"I'm not trying to justify her actions, if that is even possible at this point," Lori sternly replied. "I'm just telling you my opinion for why she did it, and to reflect on what we did. And after I spoke with Leni for a bit, we agreed on something... And once I spoke with our other sisters, they all agreed as well..."

Lori turned back to Lincoln, held him close to her, then brushed his hair as she somberly stated:

"What Cristina did was wrong, but she did it to punish us for getting away with so dang much. We're just as guilty of making mistakes as you are, and we need to confront our mistakes and make up for them, instead of letting them go unnoticed and ignored."

Then Lincoln, once the shock wore off, returned the hug and replied:

"That's just the first step, Lori... That's just the first step."

 _Some weeks later, back at the Loud house..._

Lisa, now back to full health, walked out of the her room, holding Lily on her hands and went downstairs to see most of her sisters still in their state from the fight with... She-Who-Must-Never-Be-Named, except for Lori, who really had no choice due to getting a large gaping wound on her stomach. The younger sisters were at the couch, while the older ones were at the kitchen.

So, of course, she approached the ones on the couch first. "Uh, h-hello, sisters," she nervously greeted "I, uh, I was working on something, uh, back when Lincoln was at the hospital. Something to, um, fix us up, in a sense, just in case something happened and-"

"Get to the point, Lisa, you're blocking off the Blarney Rangers!" Lola complained.

"Wait, you're watching the Blarney Rangers?!" the genius asked in disbelief. The trio nodded, Lucy with some exasperation, and once Lisa looked at the TV and verified they were watching that, she sat amongst them and finished, "Okay, so, long story short, I have a machine that can fix up your injuries. Are you interested?"

Lola and Lucy exchanged surprised looks, then immediately nodded, while Lana just continued to watch the show. "You don't want to give it a shot, Lana?" Lisa asked, with Lily giving Lana a worried look as well.

"No," the tomboy answered before she got off the couch and headed for the kitchen. "Just help Lola and Lucy while I go see if any of our older sisters want to use the machine."

"I... Didn't ask for your help, Lana," Lisa stated as Lola and Lucy headed upstairs. "I mean, I appreciate it, but why even bother?"

"I just want to save you the trouble, sis," the tomboy replied, tipping her hat. "You've been through quite a lot already, Lisa."

"Haven't we all?" the genius replied.

The pair exchanged an understanding look before Lily clapped and laugh with joy, followed by Lisa going back upstairs and Lana heading to the kitchen. Over there she found all her older sisters: Lynn, who was wheelchair-bound, Luan and Luna, with the former feeding the latter as she, in return, gave Luan something to drink, and Lori and Leni, who were not noly still ghouls, but Leni was still missing an arm.

"Hi everybody!" Lana cheerfully greeted, catching Luna, Luan and Lynn's attention. "So how are you holding up?"

Luna and Luan gave the tomboy a pair of thumbs up while Lynn gestured her to come. Though a bit hesitant at first, Lana eventually walked to the ex-athlete and said, "I'm fine, bounded to a wheelchair, but hey, it could've been worse."

"I'm glad to hear that," the mud lover replied. "Say, Lisa-"

"Before you say anything, I just want to tell you that I still regret the whole... incident, at the resort, and I wish there was some way I could repay it to you," Lynn remarked in melancholy.

"Well, Lisa has a machine that can fix the injuries we got during the whole tower fiasco," Lana said, instantly cheering up Lynn. "Perhaps, after you're fixed up, we could play some soccer?"

Lynn promptly brushed Lana's hair and stated "Let's go!" as Lana went to her wheelchair's handles, allowing her to take Lynn out of the kitchen. The only ones left were Lori, Leni, Luna and Luan, and while the last two were having a good time, the first two... Had their issues.

"Come on, Leni, we've been through this three times already!" Lori complained, with Leni simply ignoring her while seemingly trying to fold her only arm. "Even if you didn't lose your good arm to... The redhaired annoyance, you still have to admit that it's going to be way too hard living with only one arm, specially when Lisa has a machine that can fix you up! It fixed me, so why not you?"

"I asked her to make the machine to help our family, not me," Leni growled, turning away from Lori as she bitterly added, "By any and all accounts, I'm basically going to be disowned sooner or later for my actions. So why waste the machine on a stranger?"

"You're not a stranger, you're Leni Loud of the Loud family," Lori proclaimed, grabbing Leni's shoulder and forcing her to look at her. "And you have as much of a right to be healed as everybody else. Now come on, stop being so stubborn and let Lisa heal you! I'm telling you it's for your own good!"

"And I'm telling you, there's no point to it!" Leni spat. "I told Lisa to help our family, nothing more, nothing less, and if I really end up being disowned, then she'll waste the machine for nothing!"

"Leni, I'm growing tired of your nonsense about being disowned! You're a Loud now and forever until you die, and even with what you did, mom and dad most likely won't disown you! If you explain yourself, they'll listen!" Lori argued back. "Now agree to getting healed before I drag you to Lisa's room myself!"

When the teenager simply remained silent, Lori dragged Leni by the neck of her dress to Lisa's bedroom just as Luna and Luan noticed and followed them. Once there, Lori put Leni on the ground just as Lisa finished healing up Lola and Lucy, with Lynn next in line. Not only that, but everybody quickly noticed the duo's arrival, and seemed pretty happy for it.

"Oh hi Leni," Lisa greeted as the teenager got up. "See? I kept my promise; now I'm using the machine to help our family, and once Lynn is finished, I'm going to go heal either you or Luna and Luan next-"

"Then heal Luna and Luan!" Leni shouted, startling the scientist. "Heal Lori, heal yourself, hell, heal Clyde for all I know, just heal somebody who actually matters!"

"Leni, you matter too," Lori remarked.

"No I don't! I'm a jerk who manipulated all of you into changing for what I thought was the worst, using the same methods that the redhaired annoyance used to torture us!" Leni proclaimed, repeatedly slamming her fist onto the ground. "If anything, I'm probably even worse than the redhaired brat!"

"Maybe Luan should learn comedy from Leni," Lola whispered to Lucy. " _She_ knows how to make jokes."

"Listen, Leni, you may think that's true, but it only is to an extent," Lori said, crouching down and giving Leni a kiss in the lips before she added, "Besides, look at the bright side: Once Lisa heals us up, she'll then get rid of our ghoulishness...thing."

The genius flinched as the pair turned to her; Lori looking hopeful, while Leni had an "are you serious?" look. "Right, Lisa?"

Lisa took a couple steps back as she tried to think of an answer, with the fact that her other sisters were giving her hopeful looks not helping in the slightest. "H-Hey, w-where's Lincoln?" the genius asked.

 _Speaking of him..._

The boy walked to the Santiago household as some feminine voices sung "Lin-Coln!" with a melodramatic tone... Which he immediately noticed. Once he reached the door and knocked twice, he looked for the voices as Bobby promptly opened the door.

"Oh hey, Lincoln, Ronnie was waiting for you," the teenager said, instantly catching Lincoln's attention. "She's currently at her room. Feel free to come in."

Lincoln nodded and immediately went upstairs, where he knocked the door twice and got "Come in, it's open!" in response. So he opened the door... And he immediately saw Ronnie wearing her hooded purple sweatshirt, but she wasn't wearing shorts, exposing her black panties. Also, her tail was resting on her left.

"Ronnie, why aren't you wearing shorts?!" the white-haired boy inquired, covering his eyes.

"Lincoln, remember that because of my tail, I pierced my shorts and previous panties," the tomboy explained while Lincoln walked to her side. "And while I have been able to hide my tail for a while, I can only do it for so long... For some rea-"

And then Lincoln sat on her tail, causing her to scream. "S-Sorry, sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going!" the boy said as he pushed Ronnie's tail to the side and sat again. "So, why did you want to see me?"

"I just wanted to see you in a calmer, less stressful situation," Ronnie answered as Lincoln's phone rang. She continued as he answered the call. "Specially because the last couple of weeks were quite a mess, what with Cristina and her nonsense, and also me, Lori and Leni turning into ghouls and all that jazz, but now, we can relax, and maybe later we can find a way to get rid of my ghoulishness."

"That's going to take a couple months," Lincoln answered with horror.

Ronnie turned around, and with a forced smile, she asked "Come again?" as her eye twitched.

"According to Lisa, in order to create something that could turn you, Lori, Leni and maybe even Cristina back into normal humans, it would require not only some blood from all of you, but a couple months in order to perfect it," Lincoln explained as Ronnie's smile slowly turned into a worried frown. "So, until a couple months pass, after getting some of your blood that is, you, Lori, Leni, and unfortunately Cristina, are going to remain as ghouls."

"Well, there's only one thing left to do, I guess," said the tomboy, before pointing at her drawer and casually asking, "Help me pierce my other shorts and panties, please."

The boy silently agreed as Ronnie took out some of said panties and shorts and pierced some of them, while letting Lincoln pierce the rest. "S-So, I don't want to ruin the happy atmosphere we got right now, but... H-How are you feeling, regarding what happened?" the boy asked before almost immediately changing the subject. "W-We can toss this topic under the rug if you wish, but I'm curious as to-"

"Lincoln," Ronnie stated, shutting up the boy. "I know you'll never understand, but Cristina and I were close. Sure, we didn't hang out that much, in fact, I'm very surprised we even got to be friends at all, but we did, and the way she changed from a sweetheart to an abomination... It really hurts, you know? To watch someone who used to be your best friend become your worst enemy?"

"...To watch someone you thought you loved hurt you and your family to the point that they become irreedemeable?" Lincoln added, catching Ronnie's attention. "It hurts. It really does."

The tomboy looked surprised for a moment, but she quickly chuckled and moved closer to Lincoln. "Guess that's another thing we have in common," she remarked as she leaned her head against his shoulder, startling him. "But hey, we'll be able to move on from here, right?"

After the shock wore off, Lincoln wrapped his arm around Ronnie's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile as she then forced the duo down the bed, with Lincoln on top. And once he deduced what Ronnie wanted them to do, he laughed and blushed before they shared a couple of words:

"Yeah, we will move on."

"Then stop stalling, and let's "move on."

The pair blushed and engaged in a kiss as their hands intertwined and the boy hesitantly leaned closer to Ronnie...


	51. Grand Finale

**Okay, so, before we wrap this up, and trust me I want to do that just as much as you do, but remember the lessong spelled out by Lori last chapter?**

 **That lesson is not set in stone.**

 **The lesson of the story, if there even is one, is whatever you think it is. "Fiction and Reality are not the same", "Some plans are bound to fail", heck, even something stupid like "Keep up your adult filter or else your child will attempt to destroy all of shipping" can all be lessons if it's what you got from the fic. Point is, if you learned something from this, that's fine, and if not, that's okay.**

 **Now, let's go to the grand finale!**

* * *

 _Another week later..._

Mrs. Johnson drove down the street as she approached a large, heavily protected prison far away from Royal Woods, Michigan. Notably, she had a syringe and small container on her pockets... And Cristina was nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, she parked outside the facility and immediately went to the door, where she was stopped by two particularly muscular guards.

"State your business," one of the guards said.

"I'm here to visit one of the inmates," Mrs. Johnson bluntly stated, folding her arms.

"Specify the inmate." the other guard requested.

Though hesitant at first, Mrs. Johnson took a deep breath and just as bluntly stated:

"Cristina Johnson."

Next thing she knew, the woman was being escorted by the guards all the way to the deepest level of the prison, level 34. Once there, the woman firmly focused on the last cell as the other inmates gave her rather... Suggestive looks. And once they reached the last cell, the woman took a couple of steps forward and ordered:

"I'm here, come out and show yourself."

The inmate inside the cell promptly came out of the light to reveal herself as Cristina, wearing an orange jumpsuit and still as badly injured as before. Not only that, but she soon summoned her tentacles, causing the other inmates to flinch and step back.

"It's good to see you again, mother," the redhead remarked, narrowing her eyes with perverted lust as she rubbed Mrs. Johnson's face with her tentacles. However, it was clear from her expression the woman was neither disgusted or horrified at the action, but mostly annoyed. "What brings you to this wretched pit of perversion?"

Mrs. Johnson smiled, took out the syringe and extracted some blood from one of Cristina's tentacles while the redhead screamed, with the scream echoing through the facility for a couple seconds after the woman finished.

"This should be good enough for the cure," Mrs. Johnson stated with a smug smirk, showing the blood-filled container to her daughter. "Now if you excuse me, I have to go gather the blood of Lori, Leni and Ronnie Anne for the serum cure."

This only got a chuckle from the redhead. "I'm very sure Ronnie Anne's quite busy with Lincoln at the moment."

"What could they be doing at this moment that's keeping them busy?" the redheaded woman pondered, then asked to the girl, crossing her arms. "What are they doing?"

Cristina just chuckled before giving her answer in... Rather vague sentences. "Well, you could say they're screwing around, planting a seed, creating a dynasty, inserting the hotdog in the bun-"

"Okay, Cristina, your vagueness ran its course a long time ago, and its starting to get on my nerves," Mrs. Johnson growled loud enough to catch the rest of the prison's attention. "I want you to be blunt from now on, understood?"

"For fuck's sake, Lincoln is preparing to have sex with Ronnie Anne! Again!" Cristina shouted loud enough for it to echo across the facility. "There, is that blunt enough, you Leni!?"

The woman took a step back as she processed what her daughter just said, mostly wondering how she could even know that was the case. But nevertheless, Mrs. Johnson soon shook herself back to reality and sternly stated, "Whatever, I got your blood, so I have nothing else to do here."

"Farewell, Agnes, it was quite an unpleasant time to meet again," the redhead remarked as her mother was escorted out of the building. "I hope we never see each other again."

Once Mrs. Johnson reached her car, she went inside and took the time to catch her breath before calling someone. "Lisa, I got Cristina's blood," she stated, with slight exhaustion in her tone. "What about you?"

"Lori and Leni-with some coercion-agreed to let me use their blood, and Bobby is working on getting Ronnie's blood," the little genius responded from the other end. "By the way, sorry for asking, but... How's Cristina?"

Mrs. Johnson was both quick and blunt in her response:

"The less we talk about her, the better."

And with that said, she hung the phone and drove away from the building while thinking about what her daughter said about Lincoln and Ronnie. Whatever she said could only be taken with a grain of salt, no doubt about that, but still, would Ronnie and Lincoln be doing such a thing?

 _Speaking of which..._

Lincoln and Ronnie rested on the couch, a large bedsheet covering their lower bodies as Ronnie grinded her crotch against Lincoln. "A-Are you sure we should be doing this, Ronnie?" the boy nervously asked, grabbing the ghoul's shoulders. "I mean, we kinda did it last week, remember? Is there really a point in repeating it?"

"It's a good stress reliever, Linc, and after all that happened, we got a ton of stress to relieve," Ronnie argued in return, though going by Lincoln's reaction, this wasn't enough to convince him. "B-Besides, our older siblings aren't here yet-"

And then, without warning, Lori and Bobby barged through the door. "Lincoln! Ronnie! We're-" the duo shouted in unison.

It wasn't long before the older siblings noticed what Lincoln and Ronnie were doing, and a couple seconds later, Ronnie and Lincoln massaged their butts while Lori and Bobby dusted themselves.

"That's for trying to do that while we were away!" Bobby scolded, mostly to his sister.

"Yeah, specially because it gives us flashes back of what happened at the tower!" Lori added, scolding her brother. "Now, apologize to each other!"

Ronnie and Lincoln exchanged looks, then uttered "I'm sorry" right before Lori grabbed Lincoln and left the house, with Bobby restraining Ronnie. "I literally can't believe you and Ronnie were about to do that again!" Lori growled as Lincoln tried to free himself from her grasp. "Given what happened between you and the redhaired bitch, I'd expect you to be very hesitant to do it! Our sisters just got healed mentally and physically, we don't need you to give us more mental issues with the fact you had sex and we did nothing about it!"

"And I was hesitant to do that, but Ronnie basically overpowered me!" Lincoln argued in response. "Besides, since it's a good stress reliever, she figured it wouldn't hurt to try it-"

"Lincoln, you can literally do a million other things to relieve stress other than banging Bobby's younger sister!" Lori hissed. "You can throw balls at a wall, write some sort of hate fiction about it, literally anything is better than banging someone else!"

"I'm sorry, Lori," Lincoln stated, looking at the ground in regret.

"Whatever, just... Be more assertive, okay?" Lori responded, focusing on the sidewalk. "You can't let anybody use you as a rug! If a girl tells you to bang her, then tell her no! And maybe recommend her a psychiatrist, I heard Luan knows a very good one."

"Hey guys!" a familiar voice shouted.

"And speaking of Luan," Lori said as the comedian and Luna approached the pair. "Hi girls, how are you doing?"

"Dudes, you got to go to the public park right now!" Luna answered as she and Luan grabbed Lori's hand. "Something amazing is happening right now, and it can't be put into words! No time to explain, just come with us!"

So Luna and Luan dragged the duo to the park while Lori complained, with the only complaint they replied to being: "I could just fly us there, you know?!"

"Yeah, but we were told to bring you, so..." Luna argued, giving a wink to Luan.

The duo continued to drag the pair to the park, and once they arrived, the first thing they saw was that an event called "The Loud Carnival" was taking place, with all their friends and family enjoying the festivities. Oh, and Clyde and his parents were also there.

"What... What is this all about?" Lincoln asked as Lori dropped him, only for Lisa to catch him and put him on the ground.

"Well, with the help of Polly Pain, Haiku, Giggles, Clyde and Tabby, among other people, we managed to make this event!" Lisa explained as she dusted her brother. "You see, our friends felt bad that they couldn't be of help for the final battle, so to repay us, they made us a giant stress reliever in the form of a carnival!"

"So, where are the rest of our sisters?" Lincoln asked.

Lisa grabbed the boy's arm and said, "Follow me, please."

The boy nodded and followed the scientist as Lori went off on her own. First, Lisa took him to a football field with several mud puddles, with one in particular serving as the place where Lynn and Lana played together. They splashed each other with mud and laughed as Lisa and Lincoln took the time to watch their sisters having fun.

"Lana and Lynn are enjoying some mud soccer at the moment, they said it brought back good memories," Lisa explained as Lynn and Lana got up and decided to play soccer for real. "Lola was asked to join them, but she decided to leave them alone. She said something amongst the likes of leaving the lovebirds alone."

Then they continued on to a mock-up fashion show, where Lola struck several poses and blew kisses at her audience-consisting of a bunch of elementary school kids-while they took pictures of her. Lincoln was surprised that there was so many people in there, while Lisa looked more amused.

"Speaking of Lola, she's currently in a mock-up fashion show, striking several poses to her fans," the little genius explained, blowing a whistle before adding, "We wanted to put up a mock-up pageant, but for some reason, she said she wanted to take a break from that business. I guess after everything that's happened, it's kind of understandable, but we were still rather surprised."

They then went to what looked like a concert, with Luna manning the drums and Luan playing a kazoo while Mick Swagger played the guitar. Almost everybody as either dancing "Luna and Luan are doing the impossible: They're joining heavy metal and kazoo music together, and it actually sounds good!" Lisa explained, pulling off some robot moves in her dance. "As for how we got Mick Swagger to come at all, well, that was a difficult task..."

Lincoln, however, raised an eyebrow. "Okay, so all we had to do was have Luna call him, but we were still lucky that we got him to come," the genius corrected.

Finally, they went to the center of the carnival, where Leni-now with both arms-leaned against a pole while looking at the setting sun. "And Leni is taking a break," Lisa remarked, pausing as she tried to think of something else to say. "I'm not really sure what else I can add about her, she's been oddly silent about everything."

"What about mom, dad and Lily?" Lincoln asked.

"They're ensuring the festivities don't go awry."

Lisa pointed at the entrance, where Lily, Mr. and Mrs. Loud stood as bouncers... More specifically, the latter two stood as bouncers while the woman held Lily in her arms.

"You forgot about me."

The duo jumped and screamed before they noticed Lucy standing next to them. "Dang it, even during a celebration that's supposed to account for all the Louds, we still forget about Lucy!" Lisa exclaimed, before remembering something. "Although, come to think of it, Lucy wasn't really doing anything."

"That's because I'm not interested in the games," the goth answered before taking out a poem. "I just waited for Lincoln to arrive so he could tell me what he thinks about my newest poem."

"Alright, this is the Lucy I know and love! Creepy, silent to the point of absurdity, and with a perchant for poetry!" Lincoln said before taking the poem. "Now then, let's see what this is all about."

And so he read it out loud:

 _Fiction can be inspired from reality,_

 _And reality can sometimes become fiction,_

 _But there is still a line that separates them,_

 _And we must make sure we see it,_

 _Lest we become paranoid to the point of hurting those we love._

Once the boy finished, he gave Lucy a deadpan look while the goth smiled. "Why do I get the feeling this whole adventure was your inspiration, and that this is for Cristina?" he inquired.

"Well, it has to do with what I tried to tell you earlier: Cristina gave me a weird look as early as when you got your game, and I'm surprised nothing came out of it," the goth answered, twiddling her fingers as she further explained herself. "And since we were told earlier that she's currently on a maximum security prison, I don't think her mental state is going to survive for long. So, I thought I could become something like her pen pal if it will keep her from becoming even worse, since crazy Cristina was bad, but super crazy Cristina... That must never happen."

"And I wholeheartedly agree," Lincoln replied, handing the goth back her poem. "But there has to be another way to do that, you know?"

Lucy just smiled as Lincoln brushed her hair, and then the trio went deeper inside the carnival to enjoy the festivities. And while this happened, the couples decided to share some time together before the upcoming grand finale.

The first couple was Lori and... Bobby, who were sitting at a table near the center of the carnival, drinking some juice.

"So, babe, if I can keep calling you that," Bobby started, getting Lori's attention. "Are you really sure you want to date again?"

"Bobby, it should be clear right now that the only reason I broke up with you and started dating Leni was because of the chips," the winged ghoul explained, taking a sip of her drink. "Now that everything's back to normal, we can resume our dating life because I can think straight again! Besides, Leni and I weren't exactly the best couple ever when we were together."

"Did you even ask Leni about it?" the teenager asked, causing Lori to nearly spit out her drink. "How is she taking the idea?"

Lori glanced at Leni, who continued to lean against the pole nearby. But the physical ghoul simply looked away with a stern look, upon which Lori turned back to her boyfriend and nervously answered, "S-She's taking it fine. B-Besides, what we had was nothing more than fake, artificial love. What you and I have is the real deal. A-And if you want, we could do a threesome?"

And as the duo continued to talk and Lori tried to calm down Bobby, Leni glanced back at them and shed a couple tears.

"Is something wrong?"

Leni flinched and turned around to see it was Carol Pingrey who said that.

"No, nothing's wrong," the teenager answered as she wiped off her tears. "Lori broke up with me, she's back with Bobby, Lisa got us all fixed up... Everything is back to how it should be, or at least, it's getting there."

Then, Carol grabbed Leni's hand and leaned closer to her. "You know, even if it's how it should be, I still find it rather sad that a precious sweetheart like you is left all alone in these festivities," Carol whispered, making Leni blush at the statement. "How about we hang out for now? And, perhaps, we can have some coffee later?"

"We... This wouldn't work," Leni replied, gently pushing Carol away. "You don't know me, I don't know you-"

"Then how about we fix that?" Carol suggested, giving the ghoul a wink.

Seeing she had a chance, Leni blushed even harder as she smiled and gave the nurse a nod, upon which she followed her to one of the games. And while they did that, the next couple were Luna and Luan, who played a whack-a-mole game, with Cristina's head replacing the moles.

"This is so cathartic!" Luan exclaimed as she smacked as many Cristinas as possible. "Take this! And that!"

"Hehe, I'm glad you're having so much fun, Love," Luna remarked as she hit her own Cristinas. "Now, if you don't mind, there's something I need to ask you: Do you want to continue dating?"

Luan stopped hitting the Cristinas and took a deep breath. "Luna, we've been through a lot together: Pain, romance... Painful romance," the comedian answered, blushing as she leaned closer to the rocker. "Now, I would be happy to date you some more, I really would, but I was wondering if you ever thought about going... A step further?"

The rocker almost immediately caught on what her sister was implying. "Luan, I would only go a step further if you wanted me to," she answered, avoiding eye contact.

"Will you be gentle with me?" Luan inquired, leaning against Luna's shoulder.

The musician wrapped her arm around Luan's head and answered "Of course, Love," before she gave her a kiss... And then the duo returned to beat up the mole-Cristinas.

The next couple, or should I say couples, were Lola and Lana, with the former looking particularly confused, and Lucy and Lynn, with the former writting something down while the latter twiddled her fingers.

"So, why are Lucy and I here?" Lola inquired. "I mean, as far as I'm concerned, Lana and Lynn have a better history together than she and I, and Lucy brings a rather creepy atmosphere in general-"

"Lola, Lynn and I have fixed our issues, and it's time that we fix ours," Lana answered, grabbing her sister's hand. "Do you finally know what you feel towards me?"

The ex-diva thought about it for a moment, then took a deep breath and answered, "I appreciate you as a sister, but in the case of love, we simply wouldn't go anywhere. And not just because of the whole social norms thing."

"There, was that so hard to say?" Lynn jokingly complained, causing the twins to laugh as she turned to Lucy. "So, Duchess of Darkness, what do you think about what we have between us?"

"Lynn, there's nothing between us," the goth answered with a blunt tone. "All we had was a little love triangle between you, me and Lincoln that ultimately went nowhere. I honestly believe we should stay as far away from this whole romance business until we're older."

The athlete looked surprised at the statement, right before she shrugged and remarked "Touche" with pleasure.

And as this all happened, Lisa and Lincoln enjoyed a little "test your strength" game, which Lincoln actually managed to play unlike last time. He grabbed the hammer, lifted it and then swung it down as hard as possible, causing the ball to skyrocker right to the top.

"Alright!" Lincoln exclaimed, lifting his fist victoriously while Lisa clapped in joy. "Point for Lincoln!"

And then Polly Pain came out of nowhere and tackled the guy, followed by Haiku, Tabby and Giggles to run past Lisa and go to Lincoln, while Clyde helped her stabilize before going straight for the boy.

"Hello, dude, I didn't see you arrive!" Polly exclaimed as she got off Lincoln and allowed him to catch his breath. "Are you enjoying the carnival so far?"

"Well, yeah, and it's nice to see you too," Lincoln answered, rubbing his arm. "But I have to ask, why did you bother to make this?"

"Cristina broadcasted the entire event across all of Royal Woods," Tabby responded, scratching the back of her head as she further explained. "And we felt really bad while we saw our friends being tortured and we could do nothing about it."

"But then, we gathered again ever since the Sadie Hawkins dance and thought about what we could do to help you," Giggles added, somehow forming the whole scene out of balloons. "And we thought that, since you would probably be exhausted-in more ways than one-from the whole deal, something filled with fun and catharsis would do the trick!"

"And so we worked for the last couple of weeks in setting up this carnival, for all of you," Haiku finished, giving Lincoln a hopeful smile. "To relax from the torment that was this adventure, and gather around and enjoy the fact that it's finally over. Rejoice like a family, and hopefully, remember it so that the next time something like this happens, you'll know what to do."

She then gave him a wink while the boy processed what he was just told. And then Clyde walked to his friend and said, "I hope you're enjoying the festival as well, it's the least I can do for being basically useless during the whole fiasco."

"Hey, guys before gals, am I right?" Linc replied.

And the duo did a fist bump while exchanging pleased smiles.

"Now if you excuse us, we got to party with our besties!" Polly exclaimed, pointing at Lynn, Lucy, Luna and Luan in a nearby table bas she grabbed Clydee's arm. "And this guy's coming with us!"

"What, why?!" Clyde exclaimed.

"A little bird told us that you made sure our dates with Lincoln came out okay," Tabby answered. "And we would like to give you a reward for that."

"Curse you, Waltz!" the nerd shouted, lifting his fist in anger.

So the quartet immediately ran to meet with their friends while dragging Clyde along, but not before blowing some kisses at Lincoln, which he easily caught as Lisa walked to him and grabbed his arm.

"Hahaha! We got a casanova in the house!"

Lincoln and Lisa, recognizing the rather tomboyish voice, turned around to see Ronnie Anne, holding a cotton candy with her tail while she clapped and laughed in delight. "R-Ronnie Anne!" Lincoln exclaimed as Lisa hid behind him. "D-Did you see everything?"

"Yeah, I didn't knew you were such a hit with the ladies, Lame-O!" Ronnie replied, taking a bite out of her cotton candy. "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

"I... I didn't knew myself, honestly," Lincoln answered as the Hispanic ghoul went closer to him. "And, to be perfectly honest, I thought you were going to get very angry about it."

"Lame-O, this is your family's carnival, a place where you can relax after everything that's happened," Ronnie answered, offering some cotton candy to the boy. "What kind of potential girlfriend would I be if I were to ruin your fun?"

Seeing what she was saying, Lincoln took a bite out of the cotton candy as Lisa came out of hiding and gestured Ronnie to come with her. So the ghoul and the scientist left the boy behind just as he realized something:

"Wait, potential girlfriend?"

Then, the duo reunited at the entrance of the carnival, with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson standing nearby. "So, what is this topic you wanted to discuss that we need to do it in private?" Ronnie inquired, putting her hands on her pockets. "That I'll have to get over your body to date your brother if I ever care enough to do that? That you prefer to see your brother with somebody else? Perhaps you want me to help you hook up with someone like Clyde or something?"

After thinking about it for a moment, Lisa took a deep breath and responded, "Ronnie, I would like to apologize for kissing Lincoln right in front of you. It was a very bad move, and a pretty insensitive one too, and I honestly didn't want to hurt your or Lincoln's feelings-"

"Hey, girl, stop acting like it's a big deal," Ronnie replied, gently jabbing Lisa's shoulder. "You had no idea I was there, and you simply had to get it out of your system. I probably would've done the same thing if I was in your place."

The genius chuckled for a moment before the idea of their roles being swapped turned her smile into a frown. And then Lincoln arrived, "Oh hey girls, I heard that something called the grand finale is about to happen, and all the family needs to be there," he said as he grabbed Lisa's arm. "Are you coming, Ronnie?"

For some reason, the ghoul hesitated to give an answer. She couldn't help but feel somebody needed some company nearby, someone to talk with regarding what just happened.

"Before I do that," the Hispanic ghoul glanced at a nearby tavern. "There's something else I need to do."

 _At the Tavern..._

Mrs. Johnson put down a cup and took a deep breath before saying, "Give me another drink, please."

"Lady, you've had seven drinks already," said the bartender, who was none other than Flip. "If you keep drinking, then eiither you're going to get drunk or you're going to stay in the bathroom for a long time."

"Screw you, I'm in the middle of emotional turmoil and I need as many drinks as necessary!" the woman growled.

Flip rolled his eyes and went to serve the woman another drink as another person entered the establishment and sat next to her. "I would like some juice, if you have it, that is," said the person... With a familiar voice.

The lady immediately turned around and saw who this new companion was. "Ronnie Anne?!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

"You're still troubled by what happened with Cristina too, aren't you?" the ghoul inquired as Flip handed the duo their drinks. "I figured you'd be here too, and I thought I'd give you some company. Is that a problem?"

"Well, on the one hand, I do need somebody to talk about after sending _my own daughter_ to prison," Mrs. Johnson replied, taking a large sip of her drink before she continued, "But on the other hand, I'm essentially taking away the precious time you have to relax and take a breather after this madness."

"By that logic, you should be out there having fun as well," Ronnie pointed out.

The woman failed to give an answer. "Listen, I know it must be hard to talk about her at this point, but there's something I would like to know that I never got to ask," Ronnie replied, taking a sip from her drink and a bite from her cotton candy. "Just where did Cristina managed to get all her gadgets and stuff?"

"Lord Tetherby made them: The tower, the bracelets, the helmets, everything," Mrs. Johnson somberly answered. "I remember striking a deal with him: He made all of those things in exchange for getting revenge on some people he'd rather not mention. At first, I thought it was a decent deal, but by the time I figured out he was talking about the Louds, it was too late to call it off."

"Okay, one more question then," Ronnie remarked. "Was Cristina always so messed up? Or was the moment she learned the whole shipping business the catalyst of her becoming unstable?"

"She had been acting like a childish brat for a while after the whole video fiasco, so I thought it was just another part of her phase, but then I told her what shipping was, which caused her to do her research and... You know what happened next," Mrs. Johnson explained, taking another sip of her drink. "And even before that, the doctors told me that her brain seemed to work differently, almost as if she was developing a thought pattern different from most humans. I don't know if the research awakened that or if she was always that crazy, but in the end, I can't help but blame myself about it. After all, if I hadn't told her what shipping was, she never would've done her research and none of this would've happened."

"That's a way you can look at it, anyway," Ronnie replied, finishing her drink and handing over her cotton candy to Mrs. Johnson. "Say, how about you come and enjoy the party with us? You deserve a breather as much as everybody else."

"No, It's okay, I'd rather stay here," the woman answered. "Now go, have fun."

The tomboy gave the woman a worried look before she shrugged it off and walked out of the establishment, as Mrs. Johnson took a bite out of the cotton candy and got a little smile.

 _Back at the carnival..._

Almost everybody gathered around the center of the carnival for a large group photo. Lincoln and his sisters stood out in the middle, with their friends and other acolytes gathered around them, while Mr. and Mrs. Loud manned the camera.

"Okay, everybody, show us some big smiles and say cheese!" the couple exclaimed in unison.

Ronnie Anne then barged in and sat right next to Lincoln, giving off a big smile as the picture was taken.

 _Later, back at the school..._

Lincoln, alongside Ronnie and Clyde, entered the empty building and walked deeper inside, with the boy grabbing the latter two's hands as they walked. Soon enough, they reached their destination: the locker that used to belong to Cristina. So Lincoln released his friends' hands, took out the girl's picture from his pocket and put some glue in it.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Lincoln?" Ronnie asked, catching the discount albino's attention. "After all, seeing what she did through this whole endeavor, I'm pretty sure that remembering her would be the last thing you'd want to do."

"Yeah, besides, if somebody does take her locker, they're probably going to get rid of the picture anyway," Clyde added, twiddling his fingers. "So why even bother putting that in her locker?"

"Do you guys really think now's the best time to discuss that?" Lincoln retorted, making the duo scratch their heads. "Besides, I'm not doing this to remember Cristina in general, I'm doing this to remember who she used to be... Who I fell in love with... Who I..."

When Lincoln couldn't finish his sentence, Ronnie and Clyde exchanged curious looks. What exactly was he going to say?

Once he put the picture on the locker, Lincoln gave it one last, somber look before he turned around, grabbed his backpack and left the school with Ronnie and Clyde by his side.

"Are you okay, Lincoln?" Clyde inquired, putting a hand on the saddened boy's shoulder. "D-Do you need us to do something for you?"

"Stay sharp," Lincoln bluntly answered. "I don't want you, nor anybody else close to me, to ever go through something like this ever again."

Ronnie and Clyde gave the boy a pair of silent nods, then separated and went back home shortly afterwards. And so, Lincoln went back home alone. Not that he minded, after everything that happened, the boy didn't wish for anything more than a quiet, relaxing walk home.

Which he soon got for a while, since the white-haired kid reached his house within a rather short amount of time. Once there, he knocked the door and was answered by Lori almost immediately.

"Oh, Lincoln, I was about to go look for you," Lori remarked once she saw her brother. "Mom and dad bought some pizza, and everybody's trying their hardest to make sure there's some left for you."

Lincoln promptly went inside the house and to the living room, where he saw Luna and Lynn holding Lola and Lana respectively as Leni and Luan formed a totem to keep the pizza out of their reach, while Lisa sprayed them with water. Lucy? She was basically just there, holding Lily with her arms.

"Aw, this is a sight I'd been missing for so long," Lincoln said, scratching the back of his head as it was swarmed with memories. "I'll be there in a moment, just give me a second,"

Lori nodded and went to help save the pizza from Loud doom. With his mind left at ease, Lincoln returned to the entrance, then turned around and faced the readers as he grabbed the doorknob.

"So there you have it, folks," the boy said, showing a reassuring, relaxed smile. "In the Loud house, we may be louder than cicadas, and fight amongst each other more than a wrestling league. But if we're ever in trouble, specially if it concerns a psychopath bent on breaking us for a stupid reason so much, they'd give up their humanity just to achieve it... Well, we always got each other's backs, and we'll always find a way to survive."

And, with a renowned feeling of hope growing inside of him, Lincoln bid farewell before closing the door.

 **The End**

* * *

 **And with that, The Loud Sim Date is done...**

 **'Bout freaking time, am I right?**

 **But seriously speaking, though, I'd like to thank all of you for following through the whole fic up to this point. I'm gonna be honest, when I started writing this, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I was basically writing by the seat of my pants through this whole journey.**

 **Now that it's over, I'd also like to give some special thanks to Omega Ultra, who was nice enough to help me improve the story, and also give me suggestions on how things should go. Believe me, if he hadn't helped me, this story would've been MUCH worse.**

 **Quality-wise, I mean, though content wise...**

 **Anyhow, point is, I thank all of you who read and reviewed this work. This is Exotos135 saying:**

 **keep up the good work. :)**


End file.
